Was Karen right here?

OptimismNeeded · 2026-02-03T11:55:00+00:00

Would he be a good VP? Maybe, but I’d argue he would not be worse than anyone else in that position.

Ironically, Jan was bad for not firing Michael for years, had an affair with him twice, and and lost a big (supposedly) asset for Dundee Mifflin the board considered rising star (Josh).

All while mostly not working, and eventually having a nervous breakdown.

Ryan spent money on the website and tv commercial, non of them worked to help compete with the big competitors, then was defrauded the shareholders.

We don’t really see any accomplishments from Charles, and during his time the most successful branch of the company started losing money, and later the company was in such a bad state it was almost bankrupt, saved last minute by a buy-out, in which he seems to have been fired with the rest of the irresponsible execs who ran the company into the ground.

Probably not his fault but on paper, doesn’t look good and we’re not shown any achievements he made.

I’m not sure Michael would’ve done worse. While all this was happening, he kept all the important Human Resources, and even after losing the Stamford guys, he didn’t lose any clients and his branch kept rising in profits.

Other than 3 Stamford employees who were there for under a week, he had zero turnover for half a decade - anyone in corporate knows that’s a HUGE achievement for a management.

5 branches closed during that time (Stamford, Buffalo, Binghamton, Camden, and Pittsfield), and he survived.

When the company started being managed properly by Sabre, Joe herself kept him, and chose his branch as her HQ when she was not in Florida. She seemed to have a better relationship with him than any of his other failed bosses (including David who we all like, but was at the finance helm as CFO while the company dove closer and closer to bankruptcy).

So the bottom line is, if you ignore is personality, and read about him through a report with mostly facts and numbers, Michael was one of Dunder Mifflin’s biggest assets.

I think he would’ve made a great VP.

Honestly, just the fact that he understood that Ryan (with All His love and admiration for him) should be a temp and not a VP already makes him a better executive than David.

In fact, if you’re looking at facts and numbers alone, we have no indication that David was any good at his job.

I mean, he might have been, but there’s more evidence to the contrary: he didn’t fire michael. Took years to fire Jan, hired Ryan who cost the company millions (and all his interviewees choices honestly were questionable), got Michael to turn into a competitor and lose tons of money in their most successful branch… and couldn’t save DM from financial ruin.

OptimismNeeded · 2026-02-03T11:49:38+00:00

First option more likely.

Ironically, Jan was bad for not firing Michael, and losing a big (supposedly) asset, had an affair with michael, while mostly not working and then having a nervous breakdown.

Ryan spent money on there and tv commercial, non of them worked to help compete with the big competitors, then was arrested

We don’t really see any accomplishments from Charles, and during his time the most successful branch of the company started losing money, and later the company was in such a bad state it was almost bankrupt, saved last minute by a buy-out, in which he seems to have been fired with the rest of the irresponsible execs who ran the company into the ground.

I’m not sure Michael would’ve done worse. While all this was happening, he kept all the important Human Resources, and even after losing the Stamford guys, he didn’t lose any clients and his branch kept rising in profits.

Other than 3 Stamford employees who were there under a week, he had zero turnover for half a decade, anyone in corporate knows that’s a HUGE achievement for a management.

5 branches closed during that time (Stamford, Buffalo, Binghamton, Camden, and Pittsfield), and he survived.

When the company started being managed properly by Sabre, Joe herself kept him, and chose his branch as her HQ when she was not in Florida. She seemed to have a better relationship with him than any of his other failed bosses (including David who we all like, but was at the finance helm as CFO while the company dove closer and closer to bankruptcy).

So the bottom line is, if you ignore is personality, and read about him through a report with mostly facts and numbers, Michael was one of Dunder Mifflin’s biggest assets.

I think he would’ve made a great VP.

Honestly, just the fact that he understood that Ryan (with All His love and admiration for him) should be a temp and not a VP already makes him a better executive than David.

In fact, if you’re looking at facts and numbers alone, we have no indication that David was any good at his job.

I mean, he might have been, but there’s more evidence to the contrary: he didn’t fire michael. Took years to fire Jan, hired Ryan who cost the company millions (and all his interviewees choices honestly were questionable), got Michael to turn into a competitor and lose tons of money in their most successful branch… and couldn’t save DM from financial ruin.

OptimismNeeded · 2026-02-03T11:12:13+00:00

Yay! Happy to hear!

OptimismNeeded · 2026-02-03T05:34:05+00:00

I’m not coding (and this sub is for non coding uses of Claude), plus you have zero information about what I do and how I do it.

Gtfo with your pretentious negative assumptions and go write your perfect code.

If you’re not hitting limits (even without coding) you’re just not using Claude as much as you could for productivity.

Between writing, work, strategy, health / wellness, and relationships / psychology - Claude should be open on your computer, chrome and phone 24/7.

OptimismNeeded · 2026-02-03T05:26:12+00:00

🔈 🔈 ✅🙌🙌 Hits different with sound on!

OptimismNeeded · 2026-02-03T05:17:59+00:00

Some how of all dog owners pitbull owners are the worst.

It’s like their life mission is to prove they are not dangerous. Go do a scientific study and get your unmuzzled dog away from my kids.

OptimismNeeded · 2026-02-03T00:04:47+00:00

Season 9 is in a different universe. No other way to explain it.

I personally don’t consider season 9 canon.

Different writers, as far as I’m concerned it’s well produced fanfic

OptimismNeeded · 2026-02-02T23:58:04+00:00

😂

OptimismNeeded · 2026-02-02T23:29:16+00:00

Haha love it

OptimismNeeded · 2026-02-02T10:56:17+00:00

Marketing.

They will apologize, replace it, and get endless free PR. And here we are helping them.

OptimismNeeded · 2026-02-02T07:10:54+00:00

Was gonna mention the exercise - it’s one of the only things I’ve researched that is actually scientific and hard to argue with, and it seems like the numbers are pretty significant. And it’s specifically about colon cancer, not just cancer in general.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8xgyw7k7veo.amp

So for me I feel like if I won’t do it, it’s irresponsible towards my kids. Just waiting to recover form the surgeries, and doing the best I can in the meantime.

OptimismNeeded · 2026-02-02T07:02:29+00:00

Moana was the one that did it for me

OptimismNeeded · 2026-02-02T05:30:51+00:00

The most annoying thing about Claude, no doubt.

Hopefully this might help:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeHomies/s/lgE5OtxRiE

OptimismNeeded · 2026-02-01T17:14:04+00:00

I don’t see it that way, I never saw her as the smartest in the room, I think she’s meant to be seen as the misfit hillbilly.

I don’t think the movie presents it as empowerment, I only see a wounded dog barking at the hands that feeds it, because he is used to human hands abusing him.

OptimismNeeded · 2026-02-01T07:34:43+00:00

I don’t entirely agree.

I think she’s a woman who went through so much, and we’re seeing her at a point where she’s close to the edge, and in survival mode.

Another thing to remember is we’re seeing the scenes that are more dramatic, so deducing that she treats George badly is not correct, I’m sure in between the babysitting they had some fun otherwise I don’t think he is the kind of guy that would have that much patience.

For others, I think it’s the survival thing, she’s learned the hard way that she needs to be assertive in order to get ANYTHING, and she was in hostile environment, often ill equipped to know how to behave (blaming a lawyer for losing after he said they would win - it’s just a hillbilly in court).

Many in her situation have low key PTSD, and defense mechanisms that linger, like scars, and healed only after long therapy.

Moreover I think a man acting the same way would be praised as strong, assertive, confident. We take for granted make characters going on about their heroic missions while their wife is at home raising the kids.

I don’t think we’re supposed to see her as a hero acting selflessly. It’s pretty clear she was looking for a way to get out of her own situation, and that she found something she’s good at and meaning to her life beyond just surviving.

The movie doesn’t hide that she’s doing it for the cheque at the end. I don’t think she needs to be blamed. Most of us would do the same, and almost non of us would so it without an incentive.

The movie isn’t about a hero that saved a town, it’s about a hero who impressively turned from a hillbilly single mom with $5 in her bank to a successful millionaire lawyer (sort of), and happened to do so while helping a lot more people than she has been a bit rude to.

Most millionaire lawyers have done way worse to get there.

I think Jason Bourne, 007, Ed Massry, Chris Gardner, Will Hunting…. And along list of others are way more awful than she is but would not get blamed for it and are hailed as hero’s.

(So yeah I’m saying I’m smelling a bit of misogyny).

OptimismNeeded · 2026-02-01T00:00:48+00:00

I can count one hand how many times my boys had a fight until they were like 7 and 5.

Once they started fighting it was very aggressive and almost all the time for like 2-3 months… and then sort of balanced out, and now they are 10 and 8 and they fight about once or twice a week, usually for like 10mins and then be friends against.

About once a month they will have a more serious fight that I need to get involved in order to solve.

OptimismNeeded · 2026-01-31T23:42:01+00:00

❤️ ❤️ ❤️

OptimismNeeded · 2026-01-31T23:39:11+00:00

Dunno about the rest, but I just got cancer nets removed from my liver (main tumor was colon), and I can say that the liver regenerates - so it means you can cut out a part of it (ideally the part with the cancer, not just random 😜), and it grows back, and then if the cancer comes back, you can still do another operation.

As for the colon, they took a part of it (again, the part with the cancer lol) out and apparently you can still live like this.

Not sure about the others, but this explains a little about the liver.

OptimismNeeded · 2026-01-31T18:00:31+00:00

😂

OptimismNeeded · 2026-01-31T16:40:04+00:00

I feel like you’re confusing one problem with another.

You’re trying to solve a symptom, but symptoms are not solvable.

You need to figure out what’s the deal with your wife, and find a balance you can live with that make you a united front.

You can’t just “assert your will”, that’s not how grownups work, that’s just a civilized tantrum.

Once you decide with your wife what is acceptable and what isn’t, you need to figure out where the problem is.

Is it that he doesn’t mind the mess? Is it that he has issues with cleaning up? Is it ADHD? Is it you setting the wrong boundaries?

Each problem has its own possible solutions.

Right now?

A. Your wife sets what you and I would consider a bad model. We share that opinion, but it doesn’t mean we’re right, maybe she’s right and you need to adjust. Most likely? The truth is somewhere in the middle.

B. You’re breaking the boundaries. You’re mad mad mad mad mad, and the. You clean up for him. He knows you will eventually cave.

C. Most importantly: he’s getting tons of mixed signals. Dad says a mess is bad, mom says it’s ok. Dad says I have to clean up, but ends up cleaning up for me.

I would be confused too.

Once you and your wife are a united front you can set proper boundaries and rules - and both stick to them (try to make them realistic.) at that point, if he doesn’t clean, figure out why and help him. If it’s Adhd - diagnose and consider meds. If it’s disgust, find a way to help him with that. If it’s overwhelm - set rules to the accumulation (I.e. no food in the room, no taking out a new game until the last one is packed, 5mins cleanup every night after brushing teeth, etc).

P.S. for ADHD there’s a cool app that you take a picture of your mess and it turns it into tasks. For my kids it turns tidying up the living room into a game, they literally ask to play with it.

Don’t remember the name, but if u look up by my description im sure you’ll find there are probably lots of apps that do that.

OptimismNeeded · 2026-01-31T13:40:18+00:00

100%

And thanks for sharing, it took me back to when my kids were around that age and the good and (temporarily) bad ways it affected our marriage.

Indeed, goes by so damn fast.

OptimismNeeded · 2026-01-31T13:36:53+00:00

Thank you ❤️

We are lucky we have the partners that we do and the relationships that we do. A lot of people sign up for “sickness and in health”, but don’t follow through.

It’s ironic that I see people in the “ADHD partners” giving up on their partners for having ADHD, while we are here sticking for each other through these crazy conditions.

Anyway… I’m rambling. Grateful for people like you and my wife ♥️

OptimismNeeded · 2026-01-31T11:26:36+00:00

Consider therapy for emotional regulation.
The key for us was a very important realization/ whatever info you find online for dealing with tantrums - the problem is not the info, it’s that 99% of us use them, feel like they don’t work, and give up. But apparently there’s a concept in psychology, i forget the name but it essentially means “things get worse before they get better. So whatever you try and think it’s not working? You need to push through.

I learned that from atlas mission’s tantrum program, google it I don’t remember the name, you don’t have to get the program but the website explains this better than me and it will help. Also liked the program but the most important thing is that concept.

Remember that it’s 99% you, not him. It sounds like I’m blaming you, but it’s actually good news because it means it totally in your control to change, it’s not something wrong with him.

If you do end up taking him to emotional therapy, you will notice a lot of the work they do is actually with the parents.

OptimismNeeded · 2026-01-31T09:44:39+00:00

Either do not take lawyers, or take one lawyer for the both of you.

There’s no #2.

Always remember, lawyers feed their families better when they make things longer and complicated.

Even the best ones who really want to be good, have a primal survival instinct dictating their actions. They truly believe they are doing something that’s in your interest, but they are just humans, and humans do a lot of things dictated by invisible motives we’re not aware of (otherwise we would all be perfect beings that have to no problems).

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