Always up for a chat
It’s crazy in the UK too, where 3-5 year fixes are common. I’ve know folk who at renewal next year will be paying £500-£800 extra, each month.
My biggest impact has been gas and elec, which maybe added that amount to my annual bill. I can’t imagine the stress.
I got deeply into this (genre?) when I burned out on a combination of playing big/tough games and the stresses of life. I also enjoyed the pace of Outer Wilds and Subnautica. Some other favourites:
There are tons more, I deal with a lot of anxiety!
Some games I was recommended for this purpose that didn’t land for me:
Finally, I’d suggest trying a solo board game. More tactile and relaxing alternative to screen time.
That’s good, it might contribute to why I feel more mentally balanced when I stick to a green tea and high vegetable diet since that’s apparently a rich source of l-theanine and GABA. It’s hard to separate from the other benefits.
I don’t like our culture of having a magic pill for everything, when there are simpler (less processed, less packaging, much cheaper) things to try first that promote better health overall. But green tea, sweet potatoes and oily fish aren’t sexy marketing propositions that can be marked up x percent.
Ah yes, the placebo section. Like magic, the more it costs, the better it works.
I also find the “just look how bad the hands are heh heh heh” thing so dumb … it’s going to learn how to draw hands pretty quickly
A shameful culprit IMO was the Kermode and Mayo film review. Two wealthy broadcasters (one extremely wealthy) who left the BBC, created an objectively worse show, half of which immediately went behind a paywall. Then they started voicing atrocious adverts and wingeing that people should pay so they could keep the lights on.
They could easily have experimented with a Patreon, but the arrogance was clear.
The only upside was that I felt no pain in dropping them like a stone, but I do miss the old show and never found a good replacement.
I know what you mean, but it would depend on my current situation. Assuming I’ve had to find another job with short notice (and I’m still in my probation period) it could be a great opportunity to leverage a massive pay increase, then spend the next year planning a proper move.
I wouldn’t list it as separate employment on my CV, unless I knew it was going to be scrutinised, in which case, it’s easily explained and reflects pretty well - they wanted me back.
I used to meet a lot of these people in the office. They’d resign themselves to their situations and blame everyone else.
When I come across it now, I’ll listen and then ask what could make it better. 50% of the time it’s “does not compute” + excuses.
Choose to watch 2hrs Netflix every night or settle for a crappy job or relationship? Go for it, I’m not judging you. Bitch that it’s your only option? Nope.
I used to think that’s all I had the energy to do. Turns out reading a couple chapters, learning a bit of guitar, going on a short walk, journalling… all takes minimal mental and physical energy, but feels 10x better to do. I got stuck in shitty habits and convinced myself that’s all I could do.
Fair enough, I’ve been in those situations, that can be tough
Don’t you think most people need to understand shit to move on? If you just ask urgent questions, then take time to digest the meeting and ask those insightful followups in a team chat, it filters out the 75% of the crap you were going to say.
Having a reputation as the guy who prolongs meetings with 25% dumb questions and 25% jokes is not a good thing.
After a couple of bad questions, I’ll either excuse myself, suggest we carry on separately, or (ideally) ask to be sent a list, for me to ignore at my leisure.
Sorry Greg, we’re not here to answer your dumbass questions, or indulge your hypothetical edge cases.
Maybe it’s because I’m in a UX team and you hit a nerve, but “pull them into a quick meeting” summarizes my contempt for office life. The lack of boundaries and constant distraction was relentless.
I’ve met many Susies who, like me, dreaded the “Hey Suze, you got a minute?” because everyone vaguely recalls that we’ve worked on something related to their project. It was not as valuable or productive as you think. Pinging the person on Teams and not expecting an instant reply was the right thing to do, even back in the old days.
Am I missing something, or would basically any old smartphone work in place of this? I have a Pixel which sits in a cradle and takes care of anything I’d use this for. I guess a physical button or dial might be nice, but I have a volume dial on the car dash.
Seems plainly obvious that it’ll require a sub. It’s a Spotify box.
I love seeing people stand up to these mandates. I flat out ask the purpose for my physical presence, and unless it’s an objectively good reason AND everyone else required will be present, I’m staying away. I’ve too often arrived at an office to sit on a Teams call.
I’m not contributing to traffic pollution and seeing my kids less to satisfy someone’s whim or real estate investment. As far as I’m concerned, that ship has sailed. Virtual whiteboards exist. Welcome to the future.
It’s the least offensive type of advertising I see day to day. I couldn’t care less how my listening data is shared, and I don’t understand the zero tolerance some people have for adverts - it’s not all bad.
If they ramp up the adverts, people will vote with their feet.
Isn’t it amazing, how from a single photo you can deduce that her stand-up is pure dogshit
Changing career paths in my 30s (less stress, more money), getting a divorce (not staying in an unhealthy relationship), having kids (gives me a lot of purpose), paying down my mortgage (financial freedom)
It’s been amazing value for me - I’d spent a decade away from video games outside of Nintendo, so I had a giant backlog - I’ve played over 100 in the last 12 months on my Series X.
However, I’m noticing diminishing returns, since I’m spending a lot of time on games like Mass Effect, which are cheap to buy. There’s also a lot of games in genres I don’t like e.g JRPG, fighting, sports, and also plainly bad games.
The balance of good new games vs ones leaving the service is pretty poor, too. If I wasn’t locked into another year, I’d drop it for a while.
TLDR - look at the catalogue, work out how much it would cost to buy the games you’d play, and then decide.
Employers will quickly learn that leashing a person to their laptop will not prevent wasted time, it’ll cause them to waste time in other ways, and will drive away talent. The only harm is when it impacts outcomes, which is easier and more beneficial to track.
It’s pretty obvious when someone is underperforming, you don’t need to know whether they’ve been doing the laundry between meetings.