It wasn't until I used TikTok that I understood why it's so scary. Just based on how you interact with the app: how long you watch, what you like, how fast you're scrolling, etc. it starts to show you videos that are eerily related to what's going on in your life and what you're thinking. You don't even have to search for topics. You just start getting videos that seem to be reading your mind. The idea that they can tell what huge swathes of the population are thinking and feeling is scary. I think that's got to be a huge reason they want it under their control: it's sort of a mind-reading app.
I'd be surprised, given the technical savviness and polish of these scams, if they weren't using LLM's that are scripted such that the bot isn't "aware" it's a scam.
The real way they do it is by offering a nice job in IT to somebody with a passable written English (read Indian), then traffic them to Shan states in Myanmar and beat them into doing it. Apparently it scales better and is more predictable than LLM.
I don't think they are. They don't immediately reply all the time. And like I say - they get annoyed sometimes and tell me to fuck off once they figure out I'm toying with them.
LLMs (either online services—which also risk getting cut off—or the hardware to run them locally) are probably a lot more expensive than trafficked workers.
I've tried to do heavy workouts on low-carb. Like you said, it's very effective for weight-loss. But there were a lot of thousand-yard-stares I gave, trying to get the motivation to pick up the heavy weights.
It takes your body around six months to adapt to a ketogenic lifestyle. Your mitochondria have to breed new generations that activate the genes they have for optimally utilizing ketones as fuel. One of the weird side effects of this is building muscle rapidly and the other is muscle fatigue and DOMS nearly disappear completely, enabling you to push yourself much further. Dr. Shawn Baker (a beast of a man and heavy lifter) lives a zero carb lifestyle and holds multiple world records in rowing despite being in his 50s. A personal anecdote I have is that I moved houses a couple weeks ago. After spending an entire day lifting and carrying heavy things I was convinced I would be unable to move from the pain in the morning. (I'm in my 40s.) But after spending a year on a no-carb diet I had a little soreness the next day and then was fine the day after that. I've gotten noticably larger instead of noticeable sorer.
You really do have to reel in your expectations for those first six months but after that your gains take off like a rocketship.
I can personally attest to low-carb. I lost 40 pounds in two years. It wasn't easy. No diet is. Everyone told me I'd gain it right back and gave me visceral reactions when I told them how I did it and how it's been years now since I've switched back to a sensibly balanced diet to maintain it.
I don't think people want that particular diet to work. Granted, it's got its downsides. And you can do it in a very unhealthy way. But being 40 pounds overweight was probably worse than intermittent lower-carb with healthy(er) options like chicken caesar salads, stuffed peppers made with turkey, or tuna salad on celery. It just let me eat less calories without as much hunger.
Probably more just to be able to fill in the calories. For instance, I probably ate a lot more tuna salad on celery than I would've if it were on bread.
That would all track with the linked piece. He basically says "you're smart, and you're relying on that instead of taking the time to learn a way to do it that works best when the code has to be shared."
I think that's what he means by "gifted". Innate ability that can propel you through personal greenfield projects, but hits a wall when you're not the only cook in the kitchen.
