meowfly

Yeah. I don't know where OP is from but I recently helped someone shop for a hybrid and it was a little under 40k for a 2025.

Good luck coordinating the world.

Think SEA, Korea, Japan are going to feel better off with China empowered by a weak USA? They want trade for both national security and their economic interest. I'm sure Samsung and Sony want to pickup their share of the Chinese electronics exports.

Has Germany proven they won't sell out to do the right thing? I can't imagine German car manufacturers don't want in US markets for some greater cause. BYD is eating their lunch in China, but BYD is also non-existent in the US market.

We are possibly looking at the US kneecapping the world economy (including its own) but I'm highly skeptical country A isn't going to try to capitalize on country Bs expensive exports.

No. The reason it exists is businesses get guidance from legislators and existing case law on what prevents you from running a foul of GDPR and the cookie banner is what we ended up with. If those banners did nothing, companies wouldn't include them. They are there as the lowest effort legal defense.

Ive had a really good group of DnD/Pathfinder in the past, but I've tried several times to join games at the a local shop and it wasn't fun. D&D probably selects for a certain type of person that might already have some poor socialization skills to begin with. Moreover, it allows said person to absolutely dominate the game and make it no fun for anyone else.

My recommendation is like yours, join a hiking group, or some other more structured activity in person where you don't have to worry about someone's halfling barbarian with agoraphobia spending your gaming session derailing the module. If you find a good group though, it's a lot of fun.

I work extra hours when I need to and less when I need to. I don't mind working more when it's something interesting. I will work less when I'm burned out. On average I probably do more than 40, but it's not required.

That to me seems like a reasonable expectation from most employers at my salary.

They are not worried enough. Taiwan, despite the existential risk, spends less than the UK (perc gdp).

A family member of mine is going through keynote 522, which is a clinical trial that combines 3 chemos and an immunotherapy prior to surgery.

The five year survival rate for stage 3 triple negative breast cancer is normally about ~60% but the clinical trials show with immunotherapy it exceeds 80%. So the survival rates you see online aren't capturing the progress we are making with these drugs. Hashimotos seems worth the risk.

An interesting aside is that the patients in the clinical trials who had adverse reactions to immunotherapy and came off the medication had higher survival rates than patients who stayed on it. The hypothesis is that stimulating an immune system overreaction also means it was also highly effective against the cancer.

Also the opioid epidemic actually did make benzos much harder to get. Atleast where I live, your primary doctor is very unlikely to prescribe them and instead will refer you to a psychiatrist. The people I know who were on Ambien or Atvian have been cut off.

I think the ADHD drugs are probably next. My conspiracy theory is too much of the professional class (including doctors) is using them regularly, so it's much hard to crack down on.

I'm in the same situation and I agree that when we are together we do collaborate and plan better. On Zoom, people tend to set their mic on mute and very passively engage. However, once we have to actually execute, being in the office is a negative. In the office, it is impossible for me to put my head down and work for a couple hours without someone showing up at my desk with a question. On Slack, I can set dnd with a status message and flow.

I'm aware of the "listen" versus "problem solving" scenario. I refuse to accept the framing. For some reason people have bought in to the idea that you can unload your emotions on someone and also create expectations on how they should respond.

If someone approaches you with a problem, they should expect you'll help them find a solution.

I've struggled to buy into this hypothesis. It's always felt so clumsy as a strategy.

How would that not make top performers want to jump ship? The employees who would struggle in a tight job market are the ones who will end up returning to the office.

So to mitigate that you create exceptions for some employees which means everyone is going into the office yet still conducting all those meetings on Zoom.

My theory is RTO is about satiating a certain type of controlling personality.

This was my experience too. The short context and the optimism bias make chatgpt the wrong solution.

It starts well and then NPCs become inconsistent and the DM basically lets you craft the story by constantly doing a "yes and".

It becomes boring because the stakes feel so low.

It's harder.

1. Older adults are less open. I wouldn't just start texting someone from work about my favorite bands after knowing them for a couple weeks. In college that was common.

2. Children and family responsibilities are primary relationships, while in college friends are primary relationships.

3. Energy levels drop and responsibility rises as you age; limiting what you want to do.

4. There is a light social pressure to "act your age" that has a small governing influence to adult relationships.

I have good friendships, but almost all of my adult friendships are from college and highschool. Hanging out is usually a set activity like hopping on a game, grabbing lunch, or maybe biking, golf, etc on a sunday. Work is where I meet people and all of those relationships tend to be tainted by the professional relationship.