The one thing I’m fairly certain of with women is they are never just “fine”. And if they say they’re “fine”, they most definitely are not.

When I was younger I learned a lot of things the hard way. For a decade of my childhood I went to the emergency room at least once a year due to accidents.

Well, he could have just said bad actors, but then the answer would be a lot higher…

Just a quick nod to

my sources have all dried up

Self-doxxing! Makes me wonder how many of the dates would fit.

This proves that an infinite, non-repeating number needn’t contain any given finite numeric sequence, but it doesn’t prove that an infinite, non-repeating number can’t. This is not to say that Pi does contain all finite numeric sequences, just that this statement isn’t sufficient to prove it can’t.

I think a lot of it is feelings of helplessness. You’re on a freight train that appears to be running straight at a cliff, you can’t stop it, you can’t even make it change course, and even with that looming in the distance, it feels increasingly hard to make the situation any better before you hit that wall. Even having proof that you can improve your circumstances can remove that feeling of helplessness, and that seems to be very much unavailable for people living their relatively comfortable, if stagnant, lives in much of the developed world. If your life isn’t where you want it to be and you don’t see a path to achieve that, it’s very hard to feel happy.

Given acidity is one of the 5 basic characteristics of wine, I suspect people, even adults, have been enjoying sour flavors for a few thousand years. Also, preserves have tended to be sweet, salty, or, you guessed it, sour for a long time, as well. They only thing that has really changed is our delivery vehicle for sour snacks.

Well, you’re both right. IQ means something, but it’s only a predictor for outcomes. Many high-IQ people have led very mediocre lives and many low-IQ people have had very successful lives. Certainly, a high IQ can make life easier for you, as can being born in a prosperous country, having a wealthy family, knowing the right people, or getting lucky. The other half of that equation is hard work.

From what you’ve said, you don’t have good family connections, high IQ or know the right people. You haven’t said where you live. There may be resources there to help you, or not. Either way, accessing those resources or getting ahead without them will be hard work. If you decide to go down that path, there will be pretty menial jobs, long hours, and not much money. There will be a lot of hard work in your down time to see what you can do to improve your abilities so you can improve your prospects in the future. Likely you will find none of this fun. There’s no guarantee it will succeed. But, like with many people, those are typically the only options before you to get someplace better.

Anything along the lines of “birdy num nums”?

Sure, 10% would be a pretty big deal, but 1% in the right places is enough for a different outcome. As this article shows

Given the fact that Stein’s share of voters in 2016 exceeded Trump’s margin of victory over Hillary Clinton, Clinton would have won Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin and thus the presidency, if Stein had not been in the race.

Now, I won’t assume that all those voters would have voted for Hillary had Stein not run, but it’s clear that third-party voting can have an impact on who wins, even if they have no chance to win themselves. But the GOP seems to think this could help them, and is willing to spend money on that chance.

I don’t think it even makes a point, but it will salve their conscience, allowing them to firmly believe they stood against genocide while actually doing nothing more than this token gesture that at best has no impact on anything.

I don’t even like sweet potatoes but like that there’s enough salty/sharp stuff

I like sweet potatoes, but I get you. I don’t understand this thing where people add marshmallows. It’s already sweet! Now, bake a sweet potato, mash it, and add a little bit of salt and some hot sauce to preference, that definitely works for me.

This is the single biggest reason I don’t want my own instance. It would either be an instance of one or it would be a giant hot mess (or both). I don’t have the time or energy to moderate a bunch of other people. It’s enough trouble moderating myself.

Holy fuck, you come across as such an entitled asshole! “How can I make my life better. No comments about other people’s lives getting better in the time frame I mentioned, those things weren’t a problem for me and I don’t care.” Also, “I want the blissful ignorance of my childhood [guessing here] without acknowledging the reality of that time that led to the consequences I wish I wasn’t living in right now.”

So, back to the question. I don’t know l, maybe hit yourself in the head with a rock until you have the intellect of a six-year-old and have your parents take care of you for the rest of your life? Find some other way to reject the negative reality of the present as much as you reject the positive reality of the present and the negative reality of the past?

If wealth is accumulated due to merit, why does wealth tend to accumulate within families? Are these families somehow more meritorious than the rest of the population? Is it perhaps the multi-generational connections made in industry providing additional benefit to those families?

As for the free market, the FDA was formed because bakers in the free market realized that sawdust was cheaper than flour. The free market also requires perfect information to function correctly, but even if you have that how will it help if there is no better regulation. Once upon a time the only kind of match you could buy were made with white phosphorus, despite how dangerous it was to work with. It took regulation to switch to red phosphorus, even though the expense was only slightly higher.

To add to this, the Primitive Technology channel on YouTube shows how to make a fire with two sticks. The key to his preferred method is a harder stick with a point and a softer one with a notch. Then you have a lot of work, prep, and trial and error ahead of you.

They didn’t wear pyjama’s to work, but they did wear them out of the house to go buy snacks or such. Also, a number of us didn’t normally wear suits or ties to work, especially if we were technical and not sales or administrative. This might have been due to not being in Canada. I did a few weeks in Toronto, and a number of guys followed the same rule.

Edit: the most frustrating programming error.

I had coworkers in the early 2000s who would do this, working in a white collar profession, and pretty sure they weren’t alcoholics or doing (hard) drugs.

While this is true to a degree, there also seems to be indications that some people are more susceptible to addictive behavior than others, so some will only be inclined towards addiction if their circumstances are bad enough to make it more attractive.

I suspect this is similar to smoking causing cancer. Sure, it will likely shorten your life and cause cancer, or you can be like George Burns and smoke regularly for over 70 years.

Ultimately, it’s hard to know how susceptible you are to addiction (or smoking-related cancer) until you’ve taken the chance.