akkartik
Joined 19 years ago
Karma
15,221
Submissions
3,880
Member since
Feb 20
Recent submissions
Comment · 5 days ago
Botsplaining.
Comment · 7 days ago
I can relate. I often have to try multiple times with ~800GB of data. I still want to get out though, if only to not reward bad Takeout experience.
Comment · 14 days ago
Notice how few examples there are in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urbicide#In_premodern_times, and how prominently Carthage figures. Or scan the years in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Razed_cities.
The usual approach of the time was enslavement and taxation. Because they were less effort and more reward.
Comment · 15 days ago
Rome conquered many places without committing genocide. The fate of Carthage stands out even by the standard of the time.
Comment · 15 days ago
I'll just leave this here: I think the destruction of Carthage was a great catastrophe. Both for the world from a humanitarian perspective and for Rome which squandered a lot of economic generativity.
Comment · 1 month ago
Tell me more about the abridgements. Which one now, which one next?
Comment · 1 month ago
That's the one I mean! Can never remember the names of the books/series, hence the gesture.
Comment · 1 month ago
Lots of scifi and fantasy.
The Works of Vermin. Exceptionally well written. Not an ounce of flab anywhere.
The Carryx series, 2 books so far. Best villains ever.
Tainted Cup and sequel. Sherlock Holmes meets Godzilla.
Goblin Emperor
The Prophet (Gibran)
Los Alamos (Kanon)
Hyperion (reread)
Finally, a shout out to the best book I read in 2025: Terra Ignota. Yes, the whole series.
Comment · 1 month ago
I had to shorten the title to fit it, but there's so much here and the Necker cube is just a final addendum. This is what publishing was intended to be like!
Comment · 1 month ago
Headfaked by Moravec's Paradox.
Building simple, low-maintenance programs that reward curiosity about their internals.
http://akkartik.name/freewheeling
Check out my 100+ favorites below.