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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: July 2nd, 2023

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  • Not in an emotional way, but like digesting news from around the world and seeing logically we are fucked so may as well just quit?

    I would challenge that belief.

    Things are bad, sure. Climate is gonna change, people are gonna fight and die over the dumbest shit, and billionaires are going to loot any public good they can get their hands on.

    But good people are still fighting. It’s a lot less top-down and much less visible, but it’s happening. Lives can still be saved, the damage can still be mitigated, and the bad guys can still be meaningfully opposed. Things can change quickly!

    We have to keep in mind that the news is never gonna be good. Even when it isn’t a glorified right-wing propaganda machine, it’s a business that thrives on attention. And things that make you sad or scared or angry are always gonna grab your attention more than anything else.

    We’re not getting hit by a giant meteor. We’re not all irrecoverably fucked. It’s better to prepare for an uncertain better future than give up preemptively!











  • Hi. I failed out of college, in no small part due to undiagnosed ADHD. I wanna offer a little pushback.

    I can’t tell if you want to change society to be less punishing to neurodivergent people, or if your whole thesis is “People with ADHD have little to no trouble in society today”.

    If it’s the former: not treating people who are struggling is not the way to change society. Accepting for the sake of argument that ADHD people “pay attention to different things”; paying attention to some things is critical to my ability to thrive. I would love to live in a world where I could just do what I thought was important and still have my needs taken care of, but unfortunately I’m stuck needing to pay attention to stupid bullshit I don’t care about in order to make a living, and that’s a tremendous struggle without medication.

    If it’s the latter: Jesus Christ, talk to someone with ADHD.

    And finally: I take issue with your metaphor at the end. What do you think is present in an unmedicated person with ADHD that is somehow missing in a medicated person?



  • Publicly traded companies blow my mind a little bit.

    It’s not enough to make steady, consistent profits. Give out reliable quarterly dividends and make it so your investors make their money back plus a little extra over time. Free money is not enough for the ownership class.

    Growth isn’t enough either. Buying something for X and selling it for 1.1X so you make money even without a dividend isn’t enough for the investor class.

    You have to grow infinitely. You have to grow faster than everyone else. You have to beat the projections. Make your product smaller and shittier & sell it for the same price. Lay off 10% of your workforce after record profits to cut costs. Force ads and subscriptions and data mining into every possible space. Undercut your smaller competitors until they fold, then jack up your prices. Break the law, fuck over your workers, buy out politicians, move your production lines to countries with no labor laws.

    Being publicly traded actively rewards evil and anti-human behavior.


  • Been thru most of these. Lived with chronic pain. Wife and I lost our jobs this year within a few months of each other. Had someone credibly threaten to sue me for more than I could afford. Dealt with depression & suicidality. Worked from home with a gun on my desk because the cops wouldn’t do anything about my batshit insane neighbor.

    The list of problems I have proven to myself I can survive grows longer every day. I have the contact info for a good psychiatrist, lawyer, and physical therapist. I know who my support network is, and exactly how far I can stretch a dollar. Yes, bad things happen now that are worse than when I was younger. But I am stronger and more in control of my life. Problems that would have broken me down when I was just starting out are things I can now handle without so much as elevating my heart rate.

    And, there are new joys that have only become accessible to me through the benefit of experience! Fears I have conquered, hangups I have gotten over, people I have warmed up to.

    Getting older doesn’t just suck. I think it just seems that way because people (on the internet at least) find it really easy and relatable to complain.