throwaway803453

* Everyone seems to increasingly be in it for themselves

I was fortunate to have had a career with mild autonomy to help other team members even if it was slightly out of my job description. But this only happens in a shared office environment where you can see when someone is falling behind or overhear a problem. That physical presence also creates a bond with co-workers that's often more powerful than the corporate mission.

But working from home for the past years I feel like I mercenary working among mercenaries. Working with people that have never met and will never meet and for whom work isn't about the mission or the customer. If I get work done early, I now just call it a day. Why bother with ad-hoc testing, documentation, checking in on that new hire, proposing a conference paper, investigating technical debt, etc. It's liberating but it's also depressing.

Simply adding a delay to ensure the sentence doesn't appear after it is spoken would fix this. It's something that unavoidably happens with Saturday Night Live's transcript, for example, and I prefer it for comedy.

This is why I choose to be a contractor and an engineer. If I work, I bill. I never understood how anyone in good conscience can work 15hrs while the others at the company work 40hrs and still collect full-time benefits. As an engineer I have never had that luxury though, somehow we are always busy and I have to make an effort to reduce my billable hours without needing to pad them. I am probably also culturally biased from working class roots that overpraises hours worked and that mindset is admittedly self-defeating.

Preparing/eating a meal during a meeting is admittedly perk but it doesn't affect my focus or participation.

Here's what my invoice looks like for today

0.5hr chats, code reviews, time-audit

1.25hr Bug#12345

...

So I have captured the ~15 minutes I spent itemizing/cleaning up my invoice for the past day or two in a "time-audit"/misc line item.

"very thorough with my itemization" implying you'll just over bill your customer because they have the nerve to have you professionally account for your time ?

"tipped the balance of power from the money men to the workers"

Right so if they weren't operating with integrity that doesn't mean the worker shouldn't either. Tit-fot-tat might be an optimal game theory but better to optimize for a clear conscience.

Note, I realize I am being unfair to your comment. When my customer first asked me to itemize my invoice it was an annoyance, but now I am efficient at it and see it as win-win. I just keep adding to it in real time as I work through out the day and then do a periodic clean up and aggregation.

FWH has exposed how many white-collar jobs were only full-time in the ass-in-seat sense and how many employees should have Professional Meeting Attender as their job title.

I used to be the guy who would champion efficient meeting practices. Now it's the last thing I want given that I can now work-out, make breakfast, do manual labor, etc., while listening to meeting.

4 day work week in grasp you ask ? For many I'd be surprised if they actually did 15hrs of work a week. I'd never hire a full time employee who can work remotely. I'd employ a contractor who has to itemize their invoice.

A comment and response from their YouTube video:

I'm going to assume that the same propellers that took it up in the air become generators once you reach elevation?

Exactly. More information on how it works is here https://www.kitekraft.de/airborne-wind-energy and here https://www.kitekraft.de/technology

One of the properties I own is in Reno which is a 4hr drive from SF. It's a 2br 1ba condo which Zillow estimates $207k. It's nice, fully remodeled. That would be $900 mortgage + $180 hoa + $50 taxes (?) = ~$1200/mo ?

Make $20/hour like most folks in this working class neighborhood do and you are all set. Get a roommate or a spouse that works part time if you can't earn $20/hr.

Correction "100 row style pull-ups" my chest is nearly parallel with the ceiling.

Thanks in advance for the advice. Please share a link when you can.

No, probably more dumb in the "man-up" sense: running immediately after waking in below freezing weather while it's still dark out without warming up or wearing warm clothes. I felt superhuman and that feeling is addictive.

Perhaps that is why running injuries are so common ? You can't keep pushing yourself to deadlift more, for example, without it being painfully obvious your form is not right. And you just know that the person looking back in the mirror should not deadlift 315 lbs. But with running there is no obvious indication and the environmental factors keep changing. Then you're spending months stiff and in pain. You feel 20 years old one week and 90 years old the next.

David Goggins is that you ? I have been exercising my entire life and running is the only activity that routinely gives me injuries that last for nearly a year. Most of us probably don't have the best form but watching Goggins get his knees drained last year made me question if humans were meant to run regularly past a certain distance and past a certain age.

"I want to minimize the amount of time I have spend doing it."

Just to quickly share what worked for me since many of us don't have room for a row machine: a pull-up bar and a 30lb kettle bell. Every 4hrs between 9AM and 9PM my Alexa reminds me to work out. I then do 3 out of 4 of the following: a set of push-ups, 100 crunches, 25-pullup (or 100 row style push ups with my feet on a tall bar stool), and/or 100 kettle bell swings. The routine is usually over in 7 minutes if I stay focused. It's short enough where I don't sweat so no need to change clothes and shower.

To be clear when the workout reminder chimes, sometimes I don't want to do any of it. But then I remind myself "you can do something" and I at least do the push-ups and pull-ups. I couldn't be more pleased with the results especially given how little effort is required.

Personally I have gone ever further and started treating "I, you, my, your" as mild swear words especially around people who are insecure or who may unfairly think you are authoritarian.

"one could argue", "it's possible", etc. may be better alternatives for "I think".

"Because who will put up with you if you don't even think you're worthy of love."

The answer is people who don't know the real you. Would anyone love you if they saw a clip show of all the lies, betrayal, hypocrisy, times you yelled at your family, embarrassing fails, wasted potential, etc. But for many of us that clip show plays daily in our heads as a reminder to stop being so shitty and it comes at the price of our self-esteem.

Exactly. The working poor want good health insurance, affordable college, paid time off, a pension/retirement, home equity, a safe neighborhood, passive income, a few yearly vacations, etc. Basically what me and all my friends and family have.

But whenever the income divide comes up in personal discussion otherwise smart people imply the working poor wants the private island, rockets, lambos, and yachts of billionaires and that could destabilize society.

As are people who are impulsively contrarian.

I'll never understand OMAD from a minimum calorie requirement standpoint. I watched a lean muscular YouTuber prepare his one meal which was mostly cauliflower mash and totaled 600 calories, in which case I call BS since he probably needs about 3500cal/day given his size.

For those of us that aren't burning off excess fat and are active what would a 2700-ish calorie meal look like. Can you learn to eat 2 lbs of steak in one sitting for example and do that every day ? Because it is unlikely there is room in a typical stomach for 20lbs of cauliflower mash or 4.5lbs of pasta eaten all at once.

Also from a time management standpoint spiking your serotonin levels with that massive meal seems counterproductive. Are you really saving time if you are a drowsy for an hour or two after that massive meal ? I realize the parent poster was just contemplating, but if someone has actual experience I would be grateful for a helpful link or comment.

My bad, I shouldn't have taken the bait. What could I possibly add to a conversation about security that you couldn't do on your own as a simple thought experiment.

Well, I'll take the bait. Personally I never understood how political views on border security were anti-correlated with the belief climate change will affect food and water security.

I recently purchased a SoCal property that is 400ft from the ocean despite knowing about sea level rise, but it's also just an 8hour walk to Mexico. Doubtful I would have purchased it if we didn't have a border wall in Tijuana as I am not bullish on things getting better in Central America in the next 2 decades due to climate change. But I am fairly confident that the rising sea level will not be a problem for this property (it's 2.2meters above sea level) in the next 2 decades at least according to the IPCC and NOAA predictions. Although a bad El Nino could strike any year so who knows.

On a motorcycle if I am at a stop with no one behind me I am periodically scanning my review mirror and considering escape routes. If some appears to approach too fast I start flashing my break light until it is clear they are decelerating at a comfortable level.

I am going to start taking a similar precaution when driving. I'll just flash of my hazard lights once and hopefully that triggers something in the driver or autopilot.

Personal story, I sold my home in Austin in July of this year. I was going to sell it myself but instead found a 1% broker. It was listed at $525k and I would have taken $495k. Because I don't negotiate for a living and because $495k is a lot in comparison to what I paid, _anyone_ could have easily talked me down from $525k. But because they called the broker instead of me the property sold for $547k. The broker also encouraged me to offer only 2.5% to the buyer agent instead of the 3% that is typical.

So yes, if you can keep your cool, keep your mouth shut, forget how much you already profited, and have a bit of greed in you, then sell it yourself. Otherwise outsource this job and pay as little as you can for it.

There is a good anti-growth counter argument/observation in Homo Deus. Population growth necessitates economic growth otherwise you end up with unemployment which destabilizes society and can lead to war.

If you don't have population growth you still need economic growth to provide upward mobility to people at the bottom. Without growth you have a zero-sum game which again can lead to war.

Ideally improvements in efficiency or a shift values/culture can create a world where we can have economic growth without increasing the burden on the planet.

I was a child in a major city when leaded gasoline was prevalent and I live by an airport now. I probably see as many propeller airplanes in a year as I did automobiles in 5 minutes as a child playing in the street. This is also comparing an airplane off in the distance to a car running a few dozen feet away. So perhaps your recommended ban wouldn't move the needle at all when it comes to blood lead concentrations.

Or perhaps this is the benefit of having younger people in government. Because 50 year old like me thinks "massive progress made, don't waste time on diminishing returns" by comparing the current situation to the distant past. Whereas someone younger sees the threat differently.

Frankly, the propellor airplanes I do see are mostly military which will likely not be impacted by any regulations. I am also making the assumption only propellor airplanes could be using unleaded gas.

Does the focus on NVH imply that the increase of rolling friction over time is negligible compared to the tread lifetime ? Or is that partly of the reason to target lighter vehicles.

The above assumes the spokes(?) become stretched over time it would increase displacement of the center of rotation from the center of mass which if recall is what creates rolling friction.

18 years ago, I suddenly lost my best friend, business partner, lab partner, roommate -- my soulmate. My grief was an endless abyss and I engaged in self-destructive behavior in hopes to find something that would ease the emotional pain. Nothing worked and this went on for years.

If I could be transported today and visit my former self at that time, it's not clear my words or presence would make any difference since even in this hypothetical scenario there is no "I understand what you are going through" unless you are in the same abyss at the same time. What may have made the difference is if I could have visited myself a month prior to his accident and told myself to commit to the Jewish practice of the Shiva (7 days of mourning). It at least would have put in my mind a time-box goal. But telling myself after the fact would have been too late since I was barely conscience in a meaningful sense.

Also depending on the circumstance, prolonged depression, or thoughts of revenge as a path to end your emotional pain, may be unavoidable. In S.Junger's book "Tribe" he discusses evolutionary basis for depression. If someone dies that is demographically similar to you and in your Tribe, then your brain makes you depressed because historically humans died violent deaths. The benefit of depression is that it makes you inconspicuous (e.g., hunched to reduced physical size, quiet, sleepy) which put you out of harms way. This is more true if your tribe is small and revenge is not practical.

So to anyone reading this, please commit now to timebox your inevitable future mourning periods. 7 days is perhaps too ambitious since in our time we confront death less frequently than when that Jewish law was prescribed. But you should set some goal. You owe it to the deceased to minimize the time in your life where you aren't alive in a meaningful sense. saadalem I regret and recognize I didn't answer your question or provide optimism. Fortunately advice mentioned in the other comments are really good and after reading some of them, it would have definitely helped me during that time.

but just as the OP states that a monitor's blue is too weak to do harm, its red is also too weak to achieve the W/m^2 needed for therapeutic benefit

In my bathroom I replaced the large bulb that is turned when switching on the vent with this bulb from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07TDP67LR/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b...

I use a small hand held concave vanity mirror and reflect the overhead light into my eyes. I wiggle the mirror handle to increase the spread. This is done while brushing my teeth since my electric toothbrush has a 3 minute timer.

Ergonomic ? yes. Practical ? for me yes. Safe ? maybe given the persistence effect matches what the paper said should occur. The Oxford paper used a small handheld red LED flashlight purchased for around $10 with a paper diffuser. I didn't enjoy doing it that way and stopped after a few attempts.

I recall that a paper published by Oxford in a journal related to gerontology claimed that blue light accelerated aging of the retina. If I understand correctly, this article doesn't counter that claim outright, it just didn't find that risk with the low intensity of blue light coming from a typical monitor.

Tangentially related, that same Oxford paper (sorry I don't have a link and no longer have access to the paper) did however claim that light generated by red LEDs with sufficient intensity to leave a significant persistence effect after 3 minutes of exposure can reverse aging and damage in subjects over 40 years old although the sample size was just a few dozen people IIRC. It does so because somehow the retina's mitochondrial function is improved by light in the 650nm to 1000nm range.

Continuing on this tangent, I am 50 and have been exposing my eyes to red light for 3 minutes a day for many months and feel like my night vision has been restored. If I wake up in the middle of the night I used to see gray noise and now I can see darker black with better contrast. But I may be kidding myself.

I have a small apartment and realized my WiFi router power levels are by default set to 100%. I dropped it to 25% with no meaningful reduction in bandwidth. It's a simple precaution and while I don't believe I am sensitive to RF fields maybe my neighbor's children are.

I suspect you know this but it was ARPA until 1972: https://www.darpa.mil/about-us/timeline/arpa-name-change