# Sell Outs

Apr 20, 2021

> I don’t want to waste my time
> Become another casualty of society
> I’ll never fall in line
> Become another victim of your conformity and back down
> – Fat Lip, Sum 41

This was on the radio when I was in middle school. Big airplay. Mainstream. Did people not hear the words? Had the system already built gridded apartments over the whole punk landscape before I showed up? I wish tattoos still made you unemployable. Then I’d get some.

> That I don’t ever wanna be like you
> I don’t wanna do the things you do
> I’m never gonna hear the words you say
> And I don’t ever wanna,
> I don’t ever wanna be you
> – The Anthem, Good Charlotte

This song goes on to denounce college and real jobs. Where are you kids today? What you drop out like Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg. Drop out in pursuit of more system granted status and wealth. Fuck you. Entrepreneurs following the VC lesson plan. YOU ARE PART OF THE SYSTEM. YOU ARE NOT INNOVATING. YOU ARE JUST UNDERPAID RESEARCH DIVISIONS OF BIG TECH COMPANIES.

It is beyond sad to me what has happened to tech. The bulldozers came a while ago. They moved slow, but their eradication is almost complete. Gentrifying pieces of shit, making technology safe for the professional managerial class. They have left a few Hutongs for posterity, but gave them big brightly colored signs to point them out. They are now the most photographed barn in America.

Is my struggle against them pointless? Am I in a low budget Truman Show bubble, where the poured concrete is already totally encircling but there’s a set backdrop in the way so I can’t see it. When will the boat crash?

It’s all optimization landscapes.

The modern state doesn’t need a Goebbels. There’s a little Goebbels inside every - with a reddit account. So it’s not the Truman Show, because there’s no Christof. We are all doing this to ourselves. It’s a decentralized cultural revolution.

Ayn Rand saved the highest disdain for the professor. The epitome of human evil, the “man who knew better”, one who had great promise but squandered it for social approval.

You know who you are. It’s not too late to make a different choice.

And my real hope is that tech doesn’t work when you subject it to these conditions. Let’s see who wins self driving cars. If they win, it’s likely over. The future belongs to them and the only hope is to run. (they are the centralized, we are the decentralized)

But perhaps they can only build 737 MAXes, and legit kids in their garages will build good flying cars not for any reason but because they can, and well, maybe to try to impress a girl. Then we’ll be okay.

> K: Yo text me I’ll pick you up in my flying car.
> G: You know you could make a lot of money if you partnered with…
> (puts finger to lips)
> K: What would I buy with money?

It’s all optimization landscapes. Which way will they slope?