Random Chat, Thoughts, Posts, and/or Rants Thread

[amp0193]

2k$ for prototype, including sales, warranties, rent BTW.
Machine itself is ~1000-1100 now.

The more you talk about this, the less sense it makes.

 

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[TempusFugit]

I had high hopes for Fallout the TV show and my hopes were not only met but surpassed.

What a F*cking MASTERPIECE.

I don't binge watch TV shows but I watched this over 3 days like a mindless junkie and absolutely loved it.

I'm so glad to see such huge, ambitious projects being turned into no-compromise, no watered-down phenomenal TV shows.

I used to play Fallout 2 for months when I was a kid. It was a magical time of my childhood and it feels so nice to see this world being adapted into a TV series. I bet there are a lot of people like me who are feeling very nostalgic now.

There's also a great business lesson behind this, as I learned from Wikipedia:



They didn't want to compromise the quality so they waited for freaking 12 years before they found the right fit (or rather, the right fit found them).

That's good to hear! I've been meaning to watch it but haven't had a chance yet.
It seems like a lot of game developers have been really trying to make sure their movie adaptations don't end up being cringe.

 

[loop101]

Reddit seems useless. Every subreddit is controlled by little mobs of gatekeepers. Ask anything they don't approve of, and your question gets disappeared by downvotes. I think Digg had that problem. Reddit doesn't seem to be suffering, so I guess they are happy with things the way they are.

 

[MRiabov]

The more you talk about this, the less sense it makes.

Care to explain?

 

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[MRiabov]

Reddit seems useless. Every subreddit is controlled by little mobs of gatekeepers. Ask anything they don't approve of, and your question gets disappeared by downvotes. I think Digg had that problem. Reddit doesn't seem to be suffering, so I guess they are happy with things the way they are.

r/AskEngineers. I've asked dozens of questions there and gotten extensive replies in 95% cases.

 

[MRiabov]

In our student dorm we live in a blocks, and to access the blocks you literally need to got through a bar, where even at daytime people are already drinking, laughing, and ultimately degrading. You can't get to or out of your own house any differently.
People are drinking their teens, but hey, the dormitory also takes a profit share from that bar...

 

[Andy Black]

--Facepalm--

Nearly 10 years in the forum and I've only just realised I can mark conversations Unread so I can leave them there to remind me to do something.

Doh.

 

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[amp0193]

Care to explain?

Somehow you can manufacturer a kitchen appliance that can cook and prepare anything for a cost of only $1200.

And somehow it only costs $2000 to prototype the first one.

The numbers sound way too low to be realistic. And that's if it could do what you say it can do, which I think is implausible.

 

[Andreas]

In America, the Government gets it's power by consent of the people. When the Government uses this power for any other purpose than that for which it was given, that is not simply "things are happening". When the Federal government does this, the States are supposed to invoke the 10th Amendment of Nullification, and simply ignore them. When the Federal government uses their power to oppress the people who gave them power, that is a betrayal, and it fits my definition of evil.

I live in Europe, but I am still shocked at how people never think that the government can't be intentionally evil. No matter what tyranny they throw at us (clotshots, excessive taxation, unchecked immigration) people are too thick in their heads to stop and think what's really happening.

Yes there are dumb tyrants like Bellendsky and Von der Stupid, but they also don't give one iota of care about the people they are supposed to represent.

 

[rory182]

Raises some fair points about how many of these companies provide a shitty service in general - lots of opportunities in there and reminders to not do things in those ways (i.e. 30 steps to cancel your service is one)

The thumbnail and title is something I'd usually avoid but it got me

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Raises some fair points about how many of these companies provide a shitty service in general - lots of opportunities in there and reminders to not do things in those ways (i.e. 30 steps to cancel your service is one)

The thumbnail and title is something I'd usually avoid but it got me

"Enshitification" is a clever name for stakeholder demotion which I talked about extensively in Unscripted , 2017.

I've talked about it for years here, and it usually happens when a company goes public as prime stakeholders go from customers to shareholders. The phrase I coined is "squeezing the towel" in which companies put the squeeze on customers in order to extract every marginal $$ out of them to meet Wall Street earning expectations.

In short, every customer-centric policy that created the meteoric growth for the company is abandoned.

 

[G-Man]

"Enshitification" is a clever name for stakeholder demotion which I talked about extensively in Unscripted , 2017.

I've talked about it for years here, and it usually happens when a company goes public as prime stakeholders go from customers to shareholders. The phrase I coined is "squeezing the towel" in which companies put the squeeze on customers in order to extract every marginal $$ out of them to meet Wall Street earning expectations.

In short, every customer-centric policy that created the meteoric growth for the company is abandoned.

I'm reading "The Smartest Guys in the Room" about the demise of Enron, right now, and it goes in depth into this McKinsey mentality, beyond the usual "oh they were a bunch of crooks that gamed mark to market". They were divesting the physical natural gas assets that built the company, and the human assets that knew how to maintain that equipment and deliver an actual product, because the logic was "if we wanna go long on natural gas, we can simply call the traders". Once you're aware of that mentality, you see it everywhere.

 

[MTF]

 

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[amp0193]

They were divesting the physical natural gas assets that built the company, and the human assets that knew how to maintain that equipment and deliver an actual product

If you liked that book, you'll like this book: Flying Blind: The 737 MAX Tragedy and the Fall of Boeing

Boeing did the same stuff.

Merged with military contractor McDonnell Douglas. Douglas execs effectively took over the company, and began gutting the focus on engineering quality, outsourcing a lot of their core competencies and manufacturing. which had been what Boeing prized above all else up until that point.

It eventually culminate in the Max failures, and the other quality issues Boeing is having today. I wouldn't be surprised to see the company eventually go under in the not too distant future.


Entrepreneurs / Businesses forgetting what made them successful in the first place is often a path that leads to failure.

 

[kr8nt]

Lately I've been noticing something really strange with people around me. For some reason they just don't do anything to reach what they want to have. They just don't take any action even though they know what they need to do. Usually they start taking some action only when I almost literally force them to do it.

It seems so strange and doesn't make any sense to me. Like why are they not doing it, why are they waiting for some magical moment when "I'll have more time", "I'll have more money", etc., why are they not starting now?

Is it actually common for people to be like this, I don't know how to call it, opposite of action taking, actionless?

 

[TempusFugit]

Lately I've been noticing something really strange with people around me. For some reason they just don't do anything to reach what they want to have. They just don't take any action even though they know what they need to do. Usually they start taking some action only when I almost literally force them to do it.

It seems so strange and doesn't make any sense to me. Like why are they not doing it, why are they waiting for some magical moment when "I'll have more time", "I'll have more money", etc., why are they not starting now?

Is it actually common for people to be like this, I don't know how to call it, opposite of action taking, actionless?

It's quite easy to do nothing.

 

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[kr8nt]

It's quite easy to do nothing.

That's right, I agree, but that doesn't make any sense to me. If you want something, why not do what you have to do, to get it now?

 

[MRiabov]

Somehow you can manufacturer a kitchen appliance that can cook and prepare anything for a cost of only $1200.

And somehow it only costs $2000 to prototype the first one.

The numbers sound way too low to be realistic. And that's if it could do what you say it can do, which I think is implausible.

Great engineers... They exist.

(...albeit in very small quantities)

 

[RightyTighty]

Great engineers... They exist.

(...albeit in very small quantities)

On Reddit?

r/AskEngineers. I've asked dozens of questions there and gotten extensive replies in 95% cases.

 

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[The-J]

Today I wanted to skip leg day.

Then I though "No, I don't have to so this I GET TO do this. Imagine if I had no legs and didn't get to train my quads."

Life and emotions are all relative.


I love posts like this because it allows one to take a step back and see that happiness is just a choice.

I broke my leg not long ago, had to get surgery on it. When I got back into the gym I lost all my leg strength and was only comfortable squatting the bar. I am very grateful that my leg has been able to heal enough that I can squat below parallel without pain. So I appreciate leg day very much, even though it makes me wanna puke.

 

[GPM]

I think I've officially kicked the desire for bad foods. I turned down free-ice cream twice this month already. And not McDonald's ice cream, legit quality stuff. I also had people over and they brought chips and stuff, I didn't even take a single chip. Just zero desire to even put that trash in my body.

My diet is two large meals a day, and sometimes a snack. Breakfast is around noon, 4-6 eggs, meat and cheese. Dinner is 6ish and sometimes a veggie like asparagus or brussel sprouts with meat. I'll eat dried fruits and nuts as a snack or with one of the meals if I need more food. Sometimes Greek yogurt as well. That's about it.

My cravings have been eliminated, my energy levels are pretty consistent throughout the day, I no longer wake up hungry in the nights (this was a legitimate problem for YEARS) and I'm not hungry in the morning until about 11am now.

For anyone who knows me in person, I'm a pretty lean guy, but I've still somehow lost 6lbs so far. I've never measured my fat or muscle levels, but my strength is still the same as far as I can tell. My warm-up bench press is my body weight which I figure is okay.

Cutting excess sugar, carbs, and avoiding all seed oils and stuff has been awesome!!! I'll never go back.

 

[mikecarlooch]

vulnerable post

I’m wondering if anyone here running a business has found a mindset or perspective shift to separate your emotions from the rise and falls in business?

It literally affects my mood.

Things are going well in the business, I feel good.

Things are going bad, I feel bad.

I feel that it shouldn’t be this way, and it gets very stressful to the point where I can’t think sometimes.

Does anyone have advice on dealing with this “entrepreneurial anxiety”?

 

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[machinistguy]

vulnerable post

I’m wondering if anyone here running a business has found a mindset or perspective shift to separate your emotions from the rise and falls in business?

It literally affects my mood.

Things are going well in the business, I feel good.

Things are going bad, I feel bad.

I feel that it shouldn’t be this way, and it gets very stressful to the point where I can’t think sometimes.

Does anyone have advice on dealing with this “entrepreneurial anxiety”?

I can think of two shifts I experienced.

The first came from the sheer frequency of things going wrong. Eventually you just get used to it. Shit hits the fan that makes it seem like I'm about to go out of business... but it's happened so many times that my mental response was "I didn't go out of business last time, nor the time before. If I could handle it then, I can handle it now."

The second was shift was in where I derive my self esteem. That didn't have anything to do with my business (at least not directly). I'm a devout Catholic, so the more I grew into a better man by the Christian definition the less I started to care about external influences. I know I'm a good man and that I'm right with God and that's where I get my self esteem. I could lose everything tomorrow to a freak earthquake, but it would have no effect on where I stand with God and I'd still have what's truly important. When things go wrong, I have a initial emotion of stress, frustration, etc... But my validation is my character not my sales and that doesn't change because of business situations.

 

[Parks]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ydd2pdvdYG8

 

[ZF Lee]

I'm not heavy into video games, but when Helldivers 2 kept showing up on my YouTube feed....I decided to take a closer look. A great case study on a productocracy in the gaming industry:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrNzaCv76Ng


This YouTuber does a good job on laying out how the studio behind Helldivers basically created value skews out of what Call of Duty Activision money-grabbers were ignoring.

Microtransactions for FOMO-driven skins and stuff? Helldivers only charges for in-game currency...and their cheapest pack is $20 currently. And that game is actually CHEAPER than one of CoD's most premium in-game packs.

Player vs player turning the whole community toxic? Helldivers simply said 'we are fighting for the same side!' and drew up entire campaigns for EVERYONE to fight for together...be it capturing planets, killing 2 billion bugs, etc. For every player win, it actually contributed to the overall campaign as a whole.

Of course if the players kept fudging stuff up...then you get sad Malevolen Creek memes coming in.

Tired of mind-numbing point-and-shoot gameplay? Helldivers starts off every map by putting you in a gunship, where you can see your fellow divers actually launching from their ships. Which gives you a sense of purpose that you are in an actual war for humanity's survival. And that's just one element of their immersion experiences...

If it were not for my Fastlane grinds...I myself might actually buy and play the game.

 

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[mikecarlooch]

I can think of two shifts I experienced.

The first came from the sheer frequency of things going wrong. Eventually you just get used to it. Shit hits the fan that makes it seem like I'm about to go out of business... but it's happened so many times that my mental response was "I didn't go out of business last time, nor the time before. If I could handle it then, I can handle it now."

Thanks. This is great, this is probably the thing that is hard to see with new entrepreneurs because they haven't had enough failures they've recovered from to use as references in the past to know that it will be okay this time around.

The second was shift was in where I derive my self esteem. That didn't have anything to do with my business (at least not directly). I'm a devout Catholic, so the more I grew into a better man by the Christian definition the less I started to care about external influences. I know I'm a good man and that I'm right with God and that's where I get my self esteem. I could lose everything tomorrow to a freak earthquake, but it would have no effect on where I stand with God and I'd still have what's truly important. When things go wrong, I have a initial emotion of stress, frustration, etc... But my validation is my character not my sales and that doesn't change because of business situations.

Exactly. You're disconnected from what happens in the external world because you're content with yourself inside

This video was very helpful and relates to what you're saying:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OE0IgsxlpXE

 

[Antifragile]

vulnerable post

I’m wondering if anyone here running a business has found a mindset or perspective shift to separate your emotions from the rise and falls in business?

It literally affects my mood.

Things are going well in the business, I feel good.

Things are going bad, I feel bad.

I feel that it shouldn’t be this way, and it gets very stressful to the point where I can’t think sometimes.

Does anyone have advice on dealing with this “entrepreneurial anxiety”?

Mike,

It’s normal at the beginning. Because you haven’t earned the scar tissue on your brain for the roller-coaster of entrepreneurship.

• Omg, it’s going to be epic!
• Oh shit, this isn’t working at all.
• Wait, I got it, it’s going to be epic.
• f*cked up, that’s the end of this one
• No, wait, I can’t believe I didn’t think of this before. That solves the problem - we are soooo back!

Sound familiar?

All of that is 100% normal.

As time goes on, you become immune. Why? Because you train your brain to know that no matter the setback, you’ll find a solution even if it’s not visible to you at that time.

Once you have enough success stories in your own life, you will know with 100% certainty that it’ll all work out. Setbacks won’t phase you. You can just look back over your life and remind yourself how you've been through this or worse before.

(edit insert) The point here is that even if something fails within the current business, you are becoming stronger regardless. You are iterating and it'll workout overall in life. Meaning that even the worst possible news, like business is done... you'll be able to take the skills and knowledge to the next one and do it 10x better, faster! There is simply no scenario where the "bad news" is actually bad, you are doing things that are improving YOU. How can that be bad? Keep that in mind.

When in doubt - zoom out. Look at your life history, I bet you have plenty of evidence that says "you'll be more than just fine, this too shall pass".

Big wins won't feel so big either, you won't celebrate early. You'll have the experience of being humbled. Things may be going well, but you may choose to not focus on it at all, as you'll know with 100% certainty that something is going to go off the rails and you'll need your mental energy to solve the next problem.

Martial arts teaches that when faced against a force, don't push against it - redirect it to some other productive goal.

Same with business and life.

 

[Kak]

This supports my theory that the best are often also the biggest failures.

View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JA7G7AV-LT8&pp=ygUWTWljaGFlbCBqb3JkYW4gZmFpbHVyZQ%3D%3D

 

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[mikecarlooch]

Mike,

It’s normal at the beginning. Because you haven’t earned the scar tissue on your brain for the roller-coaster of entrepreneurship.

• Omg, it’s going to be epic!
• Oh shit, this isn’t working at all.
• Wait, I got it, it’s going to be epic.
• f*cked up, that’s the end of this one
• No, wait, I can’t believe I didn’t think of this before. That solves the problem - we are soooo back!

Sound familiar?

All of that is 100% normal.

As time goes on, you become immune. Why? Because you train your brain to know that no matter the setback, you’ll find a solution even if it’s not visible to you at that time.

Once you have enough success stories in your own life, you will know with 100% certainty that it’ll all work out. Setbacks won’t phase you. You can just look back over your life and remind yourself how you've been through this or worse before.

(edit insert) The point here is that even if something fails within the current business, you are becoming stronger regardless. You are iterating and it'll workout overall in life. Meaning that even the worst possible news, like business is done... you'll be able to take the skills and knowledge to the next one and do it 10x better, faster! There is simply no scenario where the "bad news" is actually bad, you are doing things that are improving YOU. How can that be bad? Keep that in mind.

When in doubt - zoom out. Look at your life history, I bet you have plenty of evidence that says "you'll be more than just fine, this too shall pass".

Big wins won't feel so big either, you won't celebrate early. You'll have the experience of being humbled. Things may be going well, but you may choose to not focus on it at all, as you'll know with 100% certainty that something is going to go off the rails and you'll need your mental energy to solve the next problem.

Martial arts teaches that when faced against a force, don't push against it - redirect it to some other productive goal.

Same with business and life.

I can see why you chose the screen-name Antifragile. Wow, if only we could all adopt this mindset, it would be an endless flow of creativity, innovation, and fearlessness.

And the entry to having the mindset appears to be... well... failing a lot!

 

[Kevin88660]

Recently found a youtube video about the “entrepreneurs undertakers” in China.

Basically a guy started a F&B business and failed. He realised that there is a big business in recycling the equipment of fridges and cooking utensils from failed F&B businesses.

Now he became famous in tiktok and start teaching others the trick of the businesses in non-competing locations.

Basically it’s a business to be a used shovel collector. People who gave up gold digging will sell their shovels. People who continue digging gold sometimes are okay with buying 2nd hand shovels.