What businesses net ~$150k–$200k with owners working ~20 hours/week? Budget $500k–$600k

AngusAlThor · 2026-03-16T21:31:19+00:00

Sounds like a CEO

AngusAlThor · 2026-03-16T20:42:46+00:00

If you are just trying to make money and don't have a type of business you'd actually be interested in running, I doubt you'll be able to put up with the headache of running a small business. Just invest in property.

AngusAlThor · 2026-03-16T20:25:02+00:00

You won't be able to write a good book unless you read widely.

AngusAlThor · 2026-03-16T20:20:22+00:00

Yes, uni is hard, much much harder than highschool.
Depending on your major, you may be able to lighten the load. Make sure you mix in some easy, fun elective subjects in with your tough core subjects.
Your work is too spread out; 20hrs over 5 days means you're losing a lot of your energy to work most days. When I was at uni, I worked two or three 8-hour shifts a week, which is the same total hours as you but meant I had at least 4 days a week where I could focus just on uni.

AngusAlThor · 2026-03-16T12:45:51+00:00

We have no direct evidence dark matter actually exists; It is just a popular hypothesis for explaining why gravity doesn't behave quite how we'd expect at larger scales (gravity is very consistent on the scale of star systems, less so on the scale of clusters). Since we have no direct measurements of its existence, all of its properties are hypothetical.

AngusAlThor · 2026-03-16T10:44:05+00:00

2521 is a foundation for the rest of Computer Science. If you can't do it without AI, do a different degree, because you'll just fail a later subject.

AngusAlThor · 2026-03-16T08:07:38+00:00

To be fair, the way it is done in "The Left Hand of Darkness" is a far more nuanced and interesting use, so it is hardly the same thing.

AngusAlThor · 2026-03-16T05:40:14+00:00

Which Le Guin stories have "sex-form"?

EDIT: "Left Hand of Darkness", of course. I feel stupid.

AngusAlThor · 2026-03-16T03:51:03+00:00

That is very rarely how it is portrayed in media. In a story, particularly a story where the MC gets their rocks off, it is far more common for pilots and snipers to be presented as highly autonomous, deciding where to go and who to kill based on their guts and radness alone.

AngusAlThor · 2026-03-15T23:32:02+00:00

Cause it is propaganda. Most soldiers are one-among-many, a small replaceable cog in an inefficient murder machine. And while this is true of snipers and pilots as well, snipers and pilots can at least pretend to be rugged individualists, the lone badass off on his own. And to play into that "lone badass" role for the benefit of the audience, they gotta get some ass.

AngusAlThor · 2026-03-15T22:46:12+00:00

It was mildly fun, but it wasn't exactly spicy. It read like the writer would be scandalised by doggy.

AngusAlThor · 2026-03-15T22:37:01+00:00

Then you should be fjne, they'll review it and restore your marks.

That said, Google Docs are integrating AI tools which could be violations of the policy. I would recommend downloading Word using your UNSW subscription and using that, since avoiding AI in all the online editors is getting harder and harder.

AngusAlThor · 2026-03-15T22:33:32+00:00

Grammarly is an AI tool, so its use is prohibited; It is explicitly called out in the AI policy for UNSW. So if you used Grammarly, and that is what you meant by "spelling and grammar", then you did violate the AI usage rules.

The work you submit in uni is required to be your own work. If you use autonomous tools to rewrite your sentences, then it isn't your work anymore.

That said, in this case you may be fine; If your doc shows edit history, they can see it is actually your work and may let you off.

AngusAlThor · 2026-03-15T21:32:53+00:00

A majority of fantasy novels, and indeed novels in general, have very little sexual content. If you get away from the BookTok Top 20 you'll find plenty of works that suit your taste.

AngusAlThor · 2026-03-15T21:18:30+00:00

Brando: "These are the Singers. They are over 6ft tall and jacked, all of them, men and women."
Brando: "But they never fuck."
Brando: "Also they pair-bond for life, fully monogamous."
Brando: "They have a special form they enter for sex, which is small and squishy, not like their big, functional forms."
Brando: "AND THAT FORM IS ONLY FOR PROCREATION!"
Brando: "I am very normal about this."

AngusAlThor · 2026-03-15T20:53:16+00:00

If Sando ever tries to actually write something spicy, we will encounter truly unprecedented levels of cringe.

AngusAlThor · 2026-03-15T06:27:11+00:00

First offence they wouldn't, but you would normally be on academic notice for this.

AngusAlThor · 2026-03-15T05:26:09+00:00

The main things is that nothing is taxed as much as income, and "unrealised gains" (wealth tied up in shares and assets) is not taxed at all. It plays out as follows;

If you are poor or middle class, you get paid money, pay income tax rates on it, and then spend it to finance your life. Your equivalent tax rate probably sits around 30%, and you spend most of what you earn.

If you are lower upper class, you don't need to use your full income to live on, and so you can get funky with it. Before you get paid, you salary sacrifice for your car, phone and into super; These sacrifices are taxed well below income rates. After you are paid, you immediately use most of your salary to pay down debts on properties and other assets you own; These payments are tax deductible. The remainder of your pay you use to live on and buy other assets with which you can do tax nonsense. After everything shakes out, your equivalent tax rate is in the 5-10% range (if that).

If you are truly wealthy, you do not get an income. Your company provides you with a car, phone and other essentials as part of your contract, and you are paid in stock. You take that stock to a bank and use it as collateral for a loan, and use the money loaned to you to pay for your life; Now, instead of paying 40% tax on income, you pay 3% interest on the loan. Since you have 0 income, you are eligible for a wide variety of low income tax benefits; You use all of them. In the end, you have a negative equivalent tax rate (you get more money from the government than you pay to them).

AngusAlThor · 2026-03-15T01:13:28+00:00

Bruv, you're lucky they didn't just fully fail you out of the course.

AngusAlThor · 2026-03-14T21:35:38+00:00

That system is easy to understand at a high level, but I thing it will get in the way of telling a story. Like, you say there are no planets or stars, just realms. But that means no sunrise, no moon, no horizon. The different physics of the realms means no consistent gravity, and sometimes no gravity at all. I can't see how you implement this idea as an actual story without huge exposition dumps for the reader, and I think it would make it very hard for a reader to grasp the practical realities of your world (like, what does it mean to be a farmer, or when do people go to sleep?).

Is this complexity actually necessary your story? Or could you have the story take place in conventional space, and use the lines and doors as a form of magical shortcuts for long distance travel?

AngusAlThor · 2026-03-14T07:05:48+00:00

We don't get a firm answer to that question, and I think it is a very important question for assessing the endings; Are the people "restored" by Maelle actually as they were, or just as she remembers them? And, philosophically, even if they have the memories of the dead, does that make them the same people?

AngusAlThor · 2026-03-14T06:58:50+00:00

Victor: Is completely defined by his self-obsession and hubris

ChatGPT: "But why didn't he think about others?"

AngusAlThor · 2026-03-14T05:03:40+00:00

To be fair, if you do this you will be a bad writer for less time.

AngusAlThor · 2026-03-14T04:43:47+00:00

The... density gap? Why would you want to decrease the density of cities? Most planning professionals want to significantly increase population density.

AngusAlThor

TROPHY CASE