I don’t.

The core issue: Who determines merit, ability, and position? The people who write the rules are the actual government, and governments secure their own power. Like every flawless paper-government system, it crumples as soon as the human element wets the paper.

However, assuming the rule book could be written flawlessly, with “perfect” selfless humans writing the initial rules and then removing themselves from power, there are unsolved issues:

• Popularity contests in determining merit. (I like Johnny Depp better than Amber. Who loses more status?)
• Comparing apples to oranges. (Are Athletes or Artists more worthy, what about the Plumbers and Mailmen?)
• Power corrupts.
• Do morals and ethics have a say in merit? (Save the entire planet, then start kicking cats. Still a hero?)
• How long does a merit last? (When a champion, or athlete, is no longer fit, are they de-positioned? Look at Rome.)
• Brilliant mathematicians get rewarded with what? (Better supercomputers, or political power? What qualifies them to make policy?)

They must, by definition. So yes. But for the sake of illustration, let’s assume someone who acts like a sea lion isn’t arguing in bad faith, but they aren’t arguing in good faith either. Whether they and unintentionally annoying, or not, ultimately makes no difference to the people around them.

Let’s say a specific oblivious person is combative and persistent. They are not truly trying to understand something, they just want to be right. You try to explain why their responses could be considered rude and prompt self reflection.

A) Will they evaluate themselves and realize what they are doing? B) Will they argue because they insist on being right?

The former is a rude person, but they are someone trying to figure out the world. Whether you engage with them or not, eventually they will realize their actions are causing disengagement. We’re all trying to learn and become better versions of ourselves. This person made some mistakes, realizes it, then changes.

There is no point in engaging the latter. Their lack of self awareness is irrelevant to the outcome and your mental state. Leave them alone, and don’t respond. If you do respond, and they realize they are wrong, but continue: they become a sea-lion if the fake politeness, and troll if they become inflammatory.

Don’t feed the trolls. If they want to, “be right,” they can be alone in thinking they’re right, and you can get back to learning and bettering yourself.

None of this is in the comic.

No satirical comic literally explains the intent of the comic; intent must be inferred based on the events it depicts. Or you can search the internet, Know Your Meme attempts to track culture and context. Yay for them.

because they don’t let people talk shit about them

The manner in which you engage in dialogue is important.

Pretending to not understand another person’s viewpoint, and annoying them into compliance, is arguing in bad faith. Arguments in bad faith are malicious deception.

Nobody wants to speak with sea lions because even if you explain in good faith, it won’t amount to anything except your own frustration. A summary of the heart of the sea lion: Arguing with me is pointless. “And now that you’re mad, you’ll know better than to talk shit about sea lions.”

Don’t be a sea lion. You can protest opinions without being manipulative or rude about it.

The point of the sea lion is persistent argument in bad faith.

The difference between, “prove your opinion,” can be subtle in its difference from, “why do you think that?”

Insinuating someone is badgering and being maliciously dishonest, because they asked for context, is poor etiquette.

You’re using it well. Nothing wrong at all.

Butterface excels at keeping data safe-ish or at least lets you know when to throw in the towel, and which bits you’ve lost. It’s also write intensive if you open a file with write permissions, which is harder on your drives.

Btrfs is great for the data you want to keep long term.

Also UEFI has some nice advantages if your computer isn’t a dino that can’t handle it.

Do what works for you, and keep on keeping on.

Hi. Let’s set the table here. Context: What future advantage or benefit do you expect to get by investing?

• Your budget was initially $500.

• The absolute cheapest you can have a brand-new complete Frame Work 16 is $1,621 and 5 to 8 months (Ships Q2) assuming you get the cheapest of everything and don’t purchase secondary storage. You will have a low-end laptop with the ability to trivially upgrade it later.

For an additional $1,100 what do you expect to gain? In reality you can get an equivalent performance for $200, so the question then becomes $1,300 for what?

For $2,187 you can have an equivalent to this $1,100 ThinkPad that will likely last you 7-10 years unless it breaks first. What are you investing in for $1,087?

For $2,734 and ~8 months, I can have a high-end laptop, not the most expensive options, but my personal preference to tide me over for 10 years. Is whatever I’m looking for worth $2,200? Possibly.

• For hardware I can have schematics to, after signing an NDA.
• For hackability.
• For a laptop I won’t void the warranty for fixing.
• For never having to remove 17 screw, 5 stickers, 5 more screws, an excessive amount of plastic tabs, and possibly adhesive.
• For almost indefinite access to parts. Parts that won’t disappear from the market in 1-3 years, unless the company goes under. (Yay Cali for the 7 years of parts… we’ll see how toothy it is and how long it can withstand legal and technical sabotage. Like Apple’s software locks.)
• For a laptop with parts I like. (AMD open-sourcing like mad-lads, but not quite FLOSSing.)
• For a company that I can trust for a decade before they see the dollar dollar bills. Like Google, Facebook, Reddit, etc.
• For sustainably sourced parts.
• To support a company that won’t put me through a hoop circus just to tell me I have to buy a new product because they screwed up?

If I could get it in 30 days, maybe. If I have to wait a financial quarter, or 2, and a half… maybe I’ll wait until they ramp up production, and see what innovations they have in a year. (Related: The week I decided to buy, was legitimately the day they opened for Framework 16 orders, which I would’ve sworn was Framework 15. Must be losing my mind. In any case, maybe I’ll still get the 13 and save $500.)

Is it worth it for you? Depends on your financial situation and what you value.