Dave T-W @davoloid@social.cleverlibre.org

@pluralistic @ZachWeinersmith Lots of space anthropologists, architects and scientists also fully cognizant of this fact, despite the spacebros insistance that it's round the corner.

There's *lots* of interesting work towards that goal, and lots of immediate steps to be taken in various fields.

@mattbors Awww, man! Have you stepped away from that? Understandable if so.

@mattbors Happy New Year - it's going to be a busy one for you, I'm sure!

@Walrus @DrALJONES Have recently come across Veblen's "Theory of the leisure class" and there's a lot in there about predatory culture moving to industrial. Aspects of both of those are merely elevated in today's society.

@girlonthenet I believe it's this:
https://fullfact.org/economy/side-hustle-reporting-ebay-vinted-income-not-new-tax/

"The new rules about data sharing will mean that digital re-selling platforms now have to automatically pass on data to HMRC if you’re selling 30 or more items or have total earnings over €2,000 (£1,725)."

For the purposes of ecommerce I assume Patreon etc is "casual services" rather than selling physical goods.

@Daojoan Am a couple of chapters in to Veblen's text (available here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/833) and it's right up your street. I had never heard of him before this podcast.

Can see parallels today with a predatory society that values conquest, aquisition and ownership over useful work. And individuals displaying their prowess through conquest and displays of trophies.

Might be reading into things but I can sense Trump and other oligarchs, and feels like there are some commentaries on current society too.

@bloor How to tell someone is from the North of England.

@potatogunkelly @dilettante @Daojoan I'm not the only one for whom that instantly came to mind!!!

@philpem @fullfathomfive
Sadly in this system any success is eventually going to be monetised. What might have been fairer is to recognise and reward those individuals contributions in some meaningful way.

But: reading all these points I'm thinking back to when you made those contributions. I have done the same over the years in different places. At the time, you had the same intentions as Duo to be part of a community that improved access to language learning. You gained personally from that contribution, as did the community. That hasn't been taken away, has it?

In that sense unless there was an explicit agreement and you made those contributions in the expectation that nobody would ever monetise it, it's not "free labour that was exploited", is it? It still feels shitty, and we definitely need to call that out.

@Daojoan
Timeless @mattbors
https://thenib.com/mister-gotcha/

Lolwut?! Competitive Microsoft Excel as an e-sport?! https://youtu.be/UDGdPE_C9u8?t=1004

@Carole @pluralistic @leotanczt It was a *looooong* year.

@Daojoan By sheer coincidence, I was listening to this radio show (available as a podcast) yesterday on Veblen's "Theory of the leisure class". One of the main things I took from that is that Economics positions itself as a universal scientific explanation of a system. A physical model like in Chemistry or Biology which justifies inequality.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/1t5Mw9m9zHRdDMiu2lKdH5?si=157anBwtTTGV1-UateWCag

@fivetonsflax @kevinrothrock Benjamin Button?

Here's @pluralistic explaining Word of the Year "enshittification" at UCL last year. With a panel chaired by @leotanczt.
Man this feels like a long time ago!
https://youtu.be/Yn47ptAtVH0?si=sCQpuvthAJ_6MtGL