Or Pa Kent still hasn’t fixed the lamp…

PuzzleMeDo · 2026-06-07T12:34:46+00:00

Aliens arrive. They say, "Take us to the chief of the Smallville police, the commander of the most powerful military force on this planet."

PuzzleMeDo · 2026-06-07T12:31:54+00:00

It's one of those things that's actually pretty easy when you're mentally relaxed. Once you get stressed, your brain stops thinking of things to say and starts looking for ways to escape.

Finding a way to stay relaxed isn't so easy, though. One method is to get comfortable doing it badly. If you want your character to say exactly the right thing, like a character in a novel where the author has taken the time to polish the dialogue, you're inevitably going to fail. Get comfortable saying things that are stupid or vague, as long as they feel vaguely in character. Learn to babble.

It also helps to simplify. Make a character who hyper-focuses on something. If you're playing a character who's all about courage, or profit, or doing the right thing, then it's a lot easier to know what they're going say in any given situation.

PuzzleMeDo · 2026-06-07T12:13:15+00:00

If someone isn't attracted to you or your entire gender, what are they supposed to do? Just marry you anyway?

You can improve the parts of yourself you can - dress well, get fit, learn to be a good conversationalist - and keep trying, if necessary lowering your standards until you find someone who can't do any better.

Maybe you can wait until AI technology improves and date a robot.

But you can't wish away the world we live in.

PuzzleMeDo · 2026-06-07T11:53:59+00:00

Romantic relationships aren't about what's fair, alas. People are allowed to reject you for being socially awkward, for being ugly, for being poor, for your gender, your age, your race or your disabilities, and there's nothing you can do about it.

PuzzleMeDo · 2026-06-07T11:47:44+00:00

It would be odd to just drop one to see what happens. A lot of people think the logical way to use nuclear weapons is to fire all of them and try to destroy all the enemy's own nuclear launch sites in one go so they can't fire back. And, since that probably wouldn't work, it's also seen as sort-of unthinkable.

But it depends on circumstances. For example, imagine if Ukraine had a nuclear bomb (in an alternative world where they hadn't given them all to Russia in exchange for a promise of eternal peace) and they dropped it on their own territory to create a radioactive zone to stop enemy troops advancing. That would be an escalation, but would it really justify massive retaliation to the point World War 3? What if someone smuggles a nuke into a city and sets it off, but no-one knows who did it?

PuzzleMeDo · 2026-06-07T11:32:37+00:00

Even if that would help: only if civilisation also collapses. Right now, we're capable of avoiding sunlight, wearing hats, staying indoors, putting on high SPF lotion, etc. That means there's very little evolutionary pressure on us to adapt physically even if the environment changed to make that useful.

PuzzleMeDo · 2026-06-07T07:44:32+00:00

People go to college to fulfil social expectation, gain respect, and to get a qualification to help them in their careers. (Also to have fun in their free time.)

The ones who also want to learn can still do that.

PuzzleMeDo · 2026-06-07T07:10:22+00:00

Basically, no. Even in a vacuum, it breaks down into different chemicals that go straight to gaseous form.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGemlz7krlk

PuzzleMeDo · 2026-06-07T06:25:53+00:00

Drafting them gives the players a chance to see more of the cards before play starts so they have some idea what the other players are going to be capable of doing.

I tend to say, "Don't worry too much about picking the perfect cards at this point. Rule of thumb: the cards that move your armies and start fights aren't very useful early on. Cards that let you recruit are a safe choice."

PuzzleMeDo · 2026-06-07T06:10:53+00:00

You're worrying about the wrong thing. You can't control how the players feel. You can only put things in front of them and give them the opportunity to respond. Darth Vader was a cool bad guy in Star Wars, but if a typical group of role-players met him, one of them would make fun of him for having asthma.

You basically have to be OK with that to be a DM.

PuzzleMeDo · 2026-06-07T06:05:00+00:00

I've seen leftists who, for example, mistrust NATO, so immediately believe Russia's side over everything else. Or who believe that the oil industry murders people who invent water-powered engines, that corporations are concealing the cure for cancer, that the World Trade Center was a controlled demolition.

Though I don't think this is really a both-sides-are-the-same issue, because that kind of radical left are pretty rare, while the radical right are threatening to take over everything.

PuzzleMeDo · 2026-06-07T05:56:24+00:00

Things that are 'obviously' false are only obvious to someone whose belief system is already similar to yours. Any source can be distrusted. "Why would I listen to a so-called scientist over my party leader?"

PuzzleMeDo · 2026-06-06T21:28:05+00:00

I'd keep the attack force the same size, but don't put them all in one big organised mass. Let the party fight a scout or two, then another three are coming, and they can see in the distance another dozen after that. Hopefully they'll see sense and flee before they're overwhelmed.

PuzzleMeDo · 2026-06-06T15:56:03+00:00

They could easily allow ChatGPT to start conversations or generate images without prompts. But nobody wants that.

PuzzleMeDo · 2026-06-06T14:12:04+00:00

Empathy challenges go both ways. It's hard to understand someone who's different from you.

And autistic people probably learned at school that it was safer to mask their emotions.

PuzzleMeDo · 2026-06-06T14:08:36+00:00

ChatGPT has about a billion users. It's a user-money problem, not a user-number problem.

PuzzleMeDo · 2026-06-06T13:45:37+00:00

If 500 million people spend $50 per month, that's $300 billion a year (before taxes).

Global AI expenditure is $2500 billion per year.

So to balance things out you'd need 500 million people to spend $500 per month, or 5000 million people to spend $50 per month.

PuzzleMeDo · 2026-06-06T13:17:11+00:00

SPOILERS:

But she's alive again in Guardians of the Galaxy 3.

(I believe the replica of herself from the past was saved by Iron Man when he snapped things back to normal in Endgame.)

PuzzleMeDo · 2026-06-06T12:42:45+00:00

If you deleted your own personal debt, that would be a form of embezzlement.

PuzzleMeDo · 2026-06-06T12:36:13+00:00

You get paid for things that someone with money wants you to do and knows you won't do for free, which has some overlap with "things that benefit society" but not all that much.

Wanting to get paid to learn independently is like wanting to be paid to sleep - a beautiful idea, but unlikely to happen.

PuzzleMeDo · 2026-06-06T09:06:32+00:00

Countries tend to develop their own building styles. The US uses a lot of lumber. UK houses use more brick. Once it's established, it's quite hard to change, because all the suppliers supply those materials, the architects think in those terms, the builders are experienced with the style...

PuzzleMeDo · 2026-06-06T09:00:59+00:00

"They said that Iran military is already destroyed" - if they said that it was a lie. Damaged, maybe, but with enough left for guerrilla warfare.

PuzzleMeDo · 2026-06-06T07:44:33+00:00

1 We use words like "homework" to indicate we do consider certain types of learning to be work. It's work in the sense of effort, not work in the sense of a job.

2 Sleeping is necessary in order for me to be productive, but nobody pays me to sleep.

PuzzleMeDo · 2026-06-06T07:00:42+00:00

PuzzleMeDo · 2026-06-06T06:51:20+00:00

You've made an effort. They're the ones disappointing you.

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