I can’t disagree. I get benefit out of using LLMs. At the same time the companies have insane valuations buoyed by endless hype, concentration of principals, and documented circular financing. When this craters its going to be 2000 mixed with 2008 due to extensive private credit market involvement.
Mr. Bloody Lemonade replied with this 3 hours ago, 2 minutes later, 7 minutes after the original post[^][v]#1,443,440
@1,443,438 (A)
LLMs are cool and useful technology, I just don’t see how businesses that lose billions of dollars every year are supposed to be worth a trillion dollars or whatever. I agree that it will probably implode at some point, but American tech companies are so rich from 20+ years of monopolistic dominance (Google, Apple, and Microsoft were all founded before I was born) that they can afford to set money on fire for a long time. So I have absolutely no clue when it ends, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it keeps going for several years.
Mr. Bloody Lemonade double-posted this 3 hours ago, 2 minutes later, 10 minutes after the original post[^][v]#1,443,442
@1,443,439 (A)
I feel like it would be really ironic if supposedly (don’t know if it’s actually true but I’ve heard it claimed before) that OpenAI was founded with the intention of stopping Google from being the first to develop AI and it ends up being that Google ends up winning anyway because they have other products that are so profitable they can afford to lose money on AI for longer than anybody else can.
Anonymous C joined in and replied with this 3 hours ago, 10 minutes later, 21 minutes after the original post[^][v]#1,443,443
I built a budget gayming PC in early 2025, buying some of the components from Amazon. Here's what I paid then vs what those exact components cost now.
I paid $27.99 for a 500GB SSD. That exact SSD is now $89.99 ("on sale", normal price $109.99).
I paid $21.97 for 16GB of DDR4 RAM. That exact RAM is now $105.97.
About a year later that SSD died and I bought a higher quality 500GB SSD for $57.43. That same drive is now $199.99 ("on sale"!! normal price $299.99!!!!)
Fuck this AI boom bullshit
Fun fact... that list price for the SSD is more than I paid for the entire PC I put together just over a year ago, if you exclude the cost of replacing the SSD.
> I built a budget gayming PC in early 2025, buying some of the components from Amazon. Here's what I paid then vs what those exact components cost now. > > I paid $27.99 for a 500GB SSD. That exact SSD is now $89.99 ("on sale", normal price $109.99). > > I paid $21.97 for 16GB of DDR4 RAM. That exact RAM is now $105.97. > > About a year later that SSD died and I bought a higher quality 500GB SSD for $57.43. That same drive is now $199.99 ("on sale"!! normal price $299.99!!!!) > > Fuck this AI boom bullshit > > Fun fact... that list price for the SSD is more than I paid for the entire PC I put together just over a year ago, if you exclude the cost of replacing the SSD.
Jesus. This is a great post. I’m surprised there isn’t some broader gamer outrage unless I missed it. There’s really no such thing as an “off the shelf” gaming computer since Dell bought and ruined Alienware.
Anonymous C replied with this 1 hour ago, 31 minutes later, 1 hour after the original post[^][v]#1,443,453
@previous (D)
Nowadays it seems that market has shifted onto gaming handhelds, which can usually be docked and be used as normal PCs if desired. Of course, those have been hit by all the same price increases. Steam Deck for years was THE budget handheld, it was never the best on the market, or the cheapest, but it got you the best results for the money. The lowest currently available tier just recently jumped from $549 to $789. Before being discontinued, they had even lower tiers (less storage and a lower quality screen but otherwise identical specs) for $399. I could never recommend a Steam Deck to anyone at that price. Everything is fucked.
> Nowadays it seems that market has shifted onto gaming handhelds, which can usually be docked and be used as normal PCs if desired. Of course, those have been hit by all the same price increases. Steam Deck for years was THE budget handheld, it was never the best on the market, or the cheapest, but it got you the best results for the money. The lowest currently available tier just recently jumped from $549 to $789. Before being discontinued, they had even lower tiers (less storage and a lower quality screen but otherwise identical specs) for $399. I could never recommend a Steam Deck to anyone at that price. Everything is fucked.
You could get a Nintendo Switch with shitty storage and a fan that whirs if you play anything that isn’t a stupid Mario game.
Anonymous C replied with this 1 hour ago, 18 minutes later, 1 hour after the original post[^][v]#1,443,460
@previous (D)
There is an argument to be made that the Switch 2 is one of the better deals in gaming currently. For me it's not because I pirate most of my games and the Switch 2 hasn't been hacked yet. But if you're the type of person who's paying $60-80 per game regardless, the Switch 2 has a lot to offer for the price.
That said, gaming can still be done somewhat cheap if you're content with not playing the newest games. A launch model Switch 1 looks to be around $2-300 on Ebay, and softmodding it is trivial and opens up a gigantic game library spanning decades for free. A pretty sizable percentage of my gaming is done on my Switch.
Anonymous C double-posted this 1 hour ago, 3 minutes later, 1 hour after the original post[^][v]#1,443,461
Alternatively for around $4-500 you could get a used Steam Deck which opens up an even larger library of games. It still stings knowing you're paying more for a used unit of dubious quality than you would have for a brand new one just a year ago. But it's the situation we find ourselves in currently.
Mr. Bloody Lemonade triple-posted this 1 hour ago, 5 minutes later, 2 hours after the original post[^][v]#1,443,464
If inflation is at an average of 4% per year and the median American net worth is $192,000, (don’t look at the average it’s misleading because it’s skewed by billionaires), 192,000*1.04^x=1*10^9…
I got 219 years, that feels too soon. Can somebody check my math on that? I mean it’s an exponential function so, like I guess… but 219 years to make the median US citizen a billionaire seems wrong, that doesn’t feel right.
Mr. Bloody Lemonade quadruple-posted this 1 hour ago, 1 minute later, 2 hours after the original post[^][v]#1,443,465
Okay, I think the issue is housing prices are probably inflating the median net worth so I’m going to google what it is without counting housing… or cars… because you’ve gotta live in your house so I don’t feel like that’s "net worth" in the sense most people think…
Mr. Bloody Lemonade septuple-posted this 1 hour ago, 2 minutes later, 2 hours after the original post[^][v]#1,443,468
To be fair, given the amazing political stability we’ve been having lately, it doesn’t seem unreasonable to think inflation will make everyone in the US a billionaire sometime between now and 300 years from now. That’s not a crazy bet.