You know why conventional economic models don’t predict recessions, even deep recessions?

Because the economy is built on hubris and no one, from governments to businesses to the press, listen to anyone who has anything bad to say.

“No way to prevent this, says only economic system where this regularly happens.” Okay, not strictly true but. You get the idea.

Bubbles are obvious even at the time. There are always people who warn about it. There are economists who consistently get this right because they do have models that get it right.

But nobody wants the music to stop playing. Politicians want the growth to happen until the next election cycle and until they can cash out too. The press are cronies for the ruling class and they too have stock portfolios they would like to cash out. Companies just want investor money and don’t care how or if it’s ethical, because the execs get bonuses. Most investors are frankly stupid who exist on bailouts from central banks (have you ever met some of them? I have, they’re not the most intelligent people to be very mild about it).

There’s no structural reason recessions have to happen other than they’re basically profitable for the ruling class. They buy low and sell high. Plenty of people made out like bandits after 2008 especially in the wake of QE.

Suggested New GNOME Bug Report Wording, or We’re GNOME and You’re Not.

GNOME Version 48:

Please stop filing bug reports. This is our desktop. We designed it, we built it, and we know what you actually want better than you do. If there are some features you think might be missing, if the desktop isn’t quite as effective as you imagine it could be, GOOD. That means you’re finally getting it. See Figure 1.

            ---------------------------<br>            !            -            !<br>            !           { }           !<br>            !           | |           !<br>            !           | |           !<br>            !        .-.! !.-.        !<br>            !      .-!  ! !  !.-.     !<br>            !      ! !       !  ;     !<br>            !      \           ;      !<br>            !       \         ;       !<br>            !        !       :        !<br>            !        !       |        !<br>            !        |       |        !<br>            !                         !<br>            ---------------------------<br>                  Figure 1.<br>

1. Customisation. We removed most of it. Users don’t know what they want anyway. Every preference you don’t have is one less preference you can set incorrectly. If you somehow discover dconf, that’s your own fault. See Figure 1.
2. Desktop Icons. Gone. They encourage attachment to files, which distracts from the beauty of empty whitespace. If you require desktop icons for your workflow, your workflow is invalid. See Figure 1.
3. Menus. Menus contain too many choices. Choices make users unhappy. Therefore we replaced them with a single button containing three dots. If the option you need isn’t behind the three dots, that’s because you shouldn’t be doing it. See Figure 1.
4. System Tray Icons. We deleted those too. Applications should not be running in the background. If they are, they should stop. If they insist on existing, they can minimise into your imagination. See Figure 1.
5. Title Bars. Wasteful. We merged them with the toolbar to save precious vertical pixels so you can admire more empty margins. If your application now has three rows of buttons instead of two, that’s an application problem, not ours. We talked to our HIG designers, and they think like we do: See Figure 1.
6. Themes. We made the one theme. It’s perfect. Applications are expected to resemble each other. If yours doesn’t, that’s because the application developer made poor life choices. If you install a custom theme and it breaks something, congratulations, you’ve voided your warranty. We told theme authors to see Figure 1 a long time ago.
7. Extensions. We support extensions. Right up until the next release, at which point they explode. This encourages extension authors to remain engaged with the community. We told extension authors to see Figure 1 too.
8. Workflow. If your existing workflow no longer functions after an update, that’s because it wasn’t the correct workflow. The new workflow has fewer clicks once you’ve completely retrained your muscle memory. If you need your workflow to work, see Figure 1.
9. Buttons. We removed the minimise button because nobody uses it. We know this because we asked ourselves. We also removed the maximise button because windows should not become too excited. If you really need either button, you clearly require spiritual guidance. See Figure 1.
10. Preferences. We moved them. Then we renamed them. Then we merged them into another dialogue. Finally we removed them because the correct value was obvious. If you need to change a setting, see Figure 1.
11. Bug Reports. Before filing one, please ask yourself whether the problem is actually your expectations. Nine times out of ten, it is. The remaining case is an enhancement request, which is already WONTFIX. Our bug triage people think like we do: see Figure 1.

In conclusion, your desktop is now simpler, cleaner, and more opinionated than before. If this prevents you from getting work done, perhaps your work was unnecessarily complicated. Love GNOME or install KDE, but please stop asking for minimise buttons.

I co-proposed/wrote the #Codeberg vibe-coding ban and all I got was a lot of haters in my mentions.

And a nearly 70% approval rate, with one of the highest voter turnouts the association had afaik (and one that's comparable to the last EU elections). 😎