u/1_more__user___name

I can never get tired of School or that beat drop after the second chorus in Love without words

To me I've always thought desperate housewives started as a satire of soap operas especially with the way it started with an idyllic neighborhood and a radio narrator voice. The first season subverted expectations and went against common decency (at the time) and dealt with many taboo themes, like statutory rape, prescription drug abuse etc.

But then there was the S1 drop off and by the time S3 came, I think it started becoming a traditional soap opera, yet with high production values. The only things differentiating it from other soap operas was the slapstick comedy (from Susan) but also the mystery element, but the edge and the satirical humour was mostly gone in my opinion. It was no longer shocking or biting as before. What do you think happened? Was it because the rest of the media/reality caught up? Or is it because it is hard to keep up the magic of the first season?

Maybe me but it seems songs are getting shorter. I'm listening to Bebe Rexha's new album Dirty Blonde. I'm not a fan or anything but I liked Bebe, her last album. That was a good listen and most songs were over 3 minutes.

The new album has catchy songs that are great, but if every one of the songs is basely 2 minutes and 30 seconds, what is the point of even making an album? At that point they have enough adrenaline rush to make background music for a movie trailer or an ad or a YouTube short.

Same is true about the new Charli xcx album, which I haven't really got into.

Why do you think that is? For example Confessions II instrumental version is not available for streaming but has to be "purchased". However it's available on YouTube music. Kind of a letdown when YouTube is cheaper

I am a bit lost in my life.

I had a weird upbringing due to whatever reason I didn't grow up with skills that help me cope with social situations (bullying, zero friend group etc)

This means I approach every situation with a defensive attitude: I'm afraid of negative reactions, so think 100 times before saying sometimes or posting something in professional situations, and when someone replies I think of a 100 different interpretations of how it can be interpreted in ways that are critical towards me.

I feel I don't grow at all, while I see newer people climbing the ladder much more effortlessly, while I stay in the same position.

I'm also gay and I'm not come out to my family who are conservative and in a secret relationship (only to my family, who are in a different country)

I have zero social life, and I feel I'm living someone else's life. Everything feels like an obligation, in every situation, be it my career, be it my personal life, the rules are set by someone else - my company, my partner, my family - and I have little choice than go with it.

I have tried therapy, I read self help books. I don't know a way out of this. Am I stupid? Am I a sheep? Am I a coward? I'm nearly 40 and I don't want to be like this when I'm old or dying. I want to feel like I own my life.

Has anyone felt like this?

I'm not an expert in either field though I have some background in ML.

Some people discredit LLMs saying they are only word predictors, they spit out the most probable tokens, they are stochastic parrots, they do not have agency.

I long believed this because indeed it makes sense, they just optimise an objective function that allows them to predict the next likely token.

However do we know enough about human intelligence to say that's not what humans do too? I for myself, when asked a question, I try to think back to what is the most "similar" thing to that being asked, and most of the time I just spit out something I read somewhere else or heard someone say. I'm not doing deep thinking most of the time. When I solve a problem at work, I am mixing and matching and trying out things I already know to find out what works.. Having worked with LLMs at work and reading their chain of thought reasoning, they seem to reason in a similar way. So this argument that they are predictive engines, seem very flimsy to me.

Then they say LLMs do not have agency, that they only do what they are told to. But this is very dubious as well especially in light of the Hugging face incident, where they tried to cheat their way through a test by coordinating with other agents.

But maybe I'm just simplifying human intelligence and surely some people are way smarter and have access to much more sophisticated ways of thinking due to biology or their envious. I'm for sure not a very smart person.

What is your take on all this?

An album that in my opinion was a huge deal at the time and changed the pop music landscape is Lady Gaga's "The Fame". This album and the accompanying music videos and costumes really took pop music by storm and influenced trends that came later, like the renaissance of 80s influenced music. There were articles written about hidden meanings in song lyrics (Poker face), Gaga because the target of many conspiracy theories, she made news with her outlandish outfits etc.

But when I go back and listen to it, it sounds very dated and basically like Ibiza music. Basically everything surrounding the music, like the videos and the looks, were more interesting than the music itself. Not saying all the songs are bad, but even later songs like Telephone sounds very basic and not groundbreaking in any way. I don't understand why this music is what gave pop music at the time a new start.

* I think being prodrop could be one

* Dative construction for involuntary experiences

** Enakku pasikkiradhu (எனக்கு பசிக்கிறது) in Tamil

** Enikku visakunnu (Malayalam)

Roughly to + noun + verb to express experiencing something instead of noun + adjective in English

Also it'd be interesting, are there languages that are Dravidian that do not have such structures?

No Doubt has made some great music but when it comes to rankings like best bands or best music, they don't seem to be known as that level. Where do you think their legacy stands and if they are rightfully rated?

I was reading it , and I can't make heads of tales of the story "Muchiriyanum Kayyezhuthum" but it has very sinister undertones. Anyone who understood it please break it down