If the author is on, I'm curious why he chose wxWidgets instead of Qt; I'd be surprised if it is that much lighter weight than Qt. (I even wrote my own cross-platform toolkit with "more lightweight" as one of the reasons, and if you use all the features, it weighs in about the same size as Qt, I think.) Also, the last time I used wxWidgets, many years ago, it had a clunky MFC style to it, limited feature, along with a rather Windowsy look and feel. Have those things changed?
My experience with wxWidgets based apps is that they tend to not handle DPI scaling well. Audacity is a good example, IIRC that's one of the reasons they're moving to Qt.
I think "huge part ... is from desperation" needs a citation. Gambling has been known to be a vice for millenia. There was an article on here not long ago where a reporter did sports gambling for a year for a story; he started off Mormon, disinterested in gambling, with $10k from the company, and after he lost it, he put himself on the state self-exclusion list because now he had a problem with gambling. The null hypothesis is that gambling is a vice, so to make it about desperation needs some evidence.
Also, "traditional wealth-producing ladders have all been pulled up" is nonsense. The stock market is available to all comers, and long investing is a traditional path. There was a story here a few years ago about a black janitor in NYC who died and left $7 million to the MoMA (or some such); he had invested $10k a year in the stock market. People in the trades still make good money. People on this site also tend to be in the making good money careers. I saw a bunch of young couples--and not the techy-looking ones, either--at the open houses this spring in the midwest. Also, one should not extrapolate one's situation at 25 to be the same at 45; if you've done reasonable savings, 45 should looking wealthier.
You're asking for a citation on an intentionally speculative comment, offering your own wall of unqualified anecdotes that come up every time someone claims young people are desperate, and mean nothing unless someone fills in details with whatever they want to believe.
Usually what it comes down to is that the ladder hasn't been pulled up if you've got a step ladder to the new starting point, or have already been a tradesperson with a scarce skillset in a low cost of living area that only exists because it's cheap (midwest) for long enough to not have to destroy your body doing it on an ongoing basis.
COVID and the subsequent two years have literally halved the value of money, which was great for people who already owned homes or had a huge amount in the stock market, but otherwise many will be waiting another 5-10 years before income from work catches up with what it used be worth. Major layoffs have been happening every year since.
I think this is misleading unless you at least include the price after inflation. "OMG, transportation is out of control. The original Model T only cost $850!!" Well, $850 in 1908 was about $28,000 in 2025 [1], which not unreasonable, seeing as how the starting price (list) of a Honda Civic is about $24,000.
There was something on here a year or two ago about how increasing emissions standards made it infeasible to continue manufacturing small cars. Big cars had more lenient standards. Also I think Honda quit making the Fit during the pandemic, since parts were limited and the larger cars were more profitable. So I think it's more complicated than just that people don't buy smaller cars.
It was a weak joke I made-- I _could_ quit or go without, but I was always nearby to real addicts and ended up smoking a lot for a long time. Also, I didn't inhale deeply or hold the smoke like the "professionals".
My dad always said "pedestrians have the right of way" every time one crossed the street, but wouldn't let us cross the street when the pedestrian light came on until the cars stopped. When I repeated his rule back to him, he said "you may have the right of way, but you'll still be dead if one hits you". My adult synthesis of this is "it's fine to do something risky, as long as you are willing to take the consequences of it not working out." Sure, the cars are supposed to stop at a red light, but are you willing to be hit if one doesn't? [0] Sure, the AI is supposed to have guardrails. But what if they don't work?
The risk is worse, though, it's like one of Talib's black swans. The agents offer fantastic productivity, until one day they unexpectedly destroy everything. (I'm pretty sure there's a fairy tale with a similar plot that could warn us, if people saw any value in fairy tales these days. [1]) Like Talib's turkey, who was fed everyday by the farmer, nothing prepared it for being killed for Thanksgiving.
Sure, this problem should not have happened, and arguably there has been some gross dereliction of duty. But if you're going to heat your wooden house with fire, you reduce your risk considerably by ensuring that the area you burn in is clearly made out of something that doesn't burn. With AI, though, who even knows what the failure modes are? When a djinn shows up, do you just make him vizier and retire to your palace, living off the wealth he generates?
[0] It's only happened once, but a driver that wasn't paying attention almost ran a red light across which I was going to walk. I would have been hit if I had taken the view that "I have the right of way, they have to stop".
[1] Maybe "The Fisherman and His Wife" (Grimm)? A poor fisherman and his wife live in a hut by the sea. The fisherman is content with the little he has, but his wife is not. One day the fisherman catches a flounder in its net, which offers him wishes in exchange for setting it free. The fisherman sets it free, and asks his wife what to wish for. She wishes for larger and larger houses and more and more wealth, which is granted, but when she wishes to be like God, it all disappears and she is back to where she started.
> he said "you may have the right of way, but you'll still be dead if one hits you"
Here lies the body
Of William Jay,
Who died maintaining
His right of way.
He was in the right
As he sped along,
But he’s just as dead
As if he’d been wrong.
Edgar A. Guest, possibly. Some variations and discussion here:
The company isn't necessarily crap; American manufacturing has to pay higher labor costs due to higher cost of living. A completely free market allows low cost of living companies to essentially arbitrage cost of living, with the result that the higher cost of living country gets reduced manufacturing capability. Inability to manufacture things is a strategic weakness, and we will probably get to see the consequences of that if we ever get in a serious war with China.
"and supply chain issues" is what Apple didn't have. Well, I'm sure they had them, but they were able to navigate them.
The Mac M1 came out on practically the same day as the PS5, so I think it is a great example. The M1 was available in volume when they said it was going to be. What did Tim Cook do? That. Millions of products available when they said it was going to be, during pandemic-disrupted shipping.
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