Yes. I call it, “Talking In Real Life” (TM).

Email Is mostly for work, government paperwork, and other professional setups even if we meet in person.

Squares are preferred because that is the same as minimizing Euclidean Distance, which is defined as sqrt((x2-x1)^2).

sqrt((x2-x1)^2) == x2-x1

I think you meant sqrt(x^2+y^2)

This is probably obvious, but there is another form of regression that uses Mean Absolute Error rather than Squared Error as this approach is less prone to outliers. The Math isn’t as elegant, tho.

I am getting really sick of wading through the 90% sh*t (e.g., this) to get to the 10% gold on this website, especially since I have not profited one bit from coming here lol

As I age, I find myself wanting more and more software and pieces of equipment that last for ages.

To answer your question, I still have a functional watch from 14 years ago.

watches age well

Which dictators are "in fashion" depends wholly on which party is in POWER. Polarization means that, perhaps, the dictator of Belarus can be kidnapped and arraigned by the incoming Democrat?

On so-called "gooning": you are confusing cause with effect. The cause is that women are no longer forced to marry undesirable men. The effect is that gooning becomes a means of sexual gratification among (mostly) those same undesirable men.

On "17. Wilson Effect": China's solution to this is to engineer its children genetically. How do you propose the U.S. maximizes its own genetic fitness?

> The suck is why we’re here, and only those who overcome it themselves will reap all the rewards of their hard labor.

Thinking/writing isn't "the suck".

> because the more people take shortcuts, the less quality will remain for readers to flock to, even if the overall quantity of options is much larger.

The creators of The Enhanced Games/Olympics would disagree with you.

Which brings me to my point: Are we satisfied being "Top Slave" or do we want to be Free? Or do you believe that Freedom is an illusion?

> For the purpose of conversation, what the model appears to ‘believe’ probably doesn’t matter

This is wrong to the point of being absurd. What the model "appears to 'believe'" does matter, and the model's "beliefs" about humans and society at large have vast implications for humanity's future.