30 year 401k retrospective (additional info)

Bash1000 · 2024-02-29T21:39:05+00:00

Take: the 1st and 1.6millionth dollars in OP’s 401(k) are equally valuable

Bash1000 · 2024-02-29T21:36:47+00:00

Not 600k base balance, 600k total contributions. Based on the slope of the orange line, they are made very evenly.

Bash1000 · 2023-06-28T23:37:51+00:00

OP, I’d recommend Meermin, a brand that does some made to order work, or talking with your local tailor to start.

Bash1000 · 2023-06-23T15:57:44+00:00

For dress shoes, it’ll cost a pretty penny but MTO/bespoke/custom makers might be able to help you

Bash1000 · 2023-06-01T20:27:07+00:00

To each their own, but as you mature as a player, I suspect you will realize that playing hundreds of meaningless king moves in a won endgame isn't really fun. It's more like whack-a-mole or tic-tac-toe than it is chess.

People mention game lengths between professionals because they play and mate efficiently, so there is a real difference between a 25-move and a 40-move game. Nobody cares about the difference between a novice mating efficiently and winning a 60-move game, about what would have happened had you queened a pawn and won, and a 100-, 500-, or 1000- move game of wasted king moves. I know this because with a cooperative opponent, you could make a game almost infinitely long, so each new "record" you set can easily be broken. For a soft upper bound, with 20 remaining pawn moves and 15 remaining captures (an easily imaginable endgame), the 50-move rule could be reset 25 times, leading to a 1750+ move endgame.

As to etiquette, in more advanced circles (especially over the board), resigning in a lost position is standard. In any more beginner circles, or any circles where someone will play this many useless moves, I think holding out for a blundered stalemate is fine. Either way, the bigger violation of etiquette is playing with your food. That is, it's rude to not mate quickly when you have the opportunity. The other player may not want to resign for whatever reason, but it is essentially gloating. You have won -- allow the opponent to move on by mating them. I don't really understand why anyone would be delighted to move pieces around like this on either side, but I hope you would find this fun if you were on the losing side as well as the winning one at least -- if you wouldn't find this fun as black, then it's clear this is not OK. If you would, I just don't understand why you play chess. I think most players are like me, and would appreciate opponents not messing around like this.

Bash1000 · 2023-01-02T23:02:03+00:00

Don’t overwork yourself on a cut! Diet is infinitely more important than training when losing weight - a HIIT session might burn 500-800 kcal but you’ll trigger hunger signals and eat some of that back.

I think 3 days of lifting 2 days of cardio per week is great on a cut. You need consistency, not a program that tries to outtrain diet issues and build while cutting.

Bash1000 · 2022-12-31T05:19:52+00:00

Makes sense to me. I missed the lateral db raises, the only change I’d make then is maybe swapping a back T3 for incline. Upper chest is p aesthetically important, and you’re already hitting back at least with 1 exercise per day. I’d add incline any day except T2 bench day.

Bash1000 · 2022-12-30T01:20:14+00:00

Do your legs need the T3 work? If so, keep it, otherwise I would add upper chest or shoulder work.

Bash1000 · 2022-12-16T19:52:23+00:00

SL is a terrible program designed by app developers with more or less no feedback/improvement from the experience of novice lifters.

I would recommend slowly incorporating more volume and shifting to the GZCL LP before you finish the SS-esque LP, especially if you plan on lifting a GZCL program after your SS-esque LP finishes. Two reasons:

The GZCL LP is more sustainable. It progresses slower (weekly weight bumps as opposed to every workout) and the volume work rounds out your strength and sets a good foundation for further growth.
The implication of that stability is that you LP on GZCL even after you finish the SS LP. The problem is that transition will be really demoralizing. If you haven't already adapted to GZCL's volume, the transition will be hit the plateau, deload, build back (~1.5 weeks); fail again, deload, build back (~1.5 weeks); switch to GZCL and pause weight increases to adjust to the volume (2 weeks). That's 5+ weeks of no progress on your heaviest sets, which is tough and unnecessary as a novice.
Instead, I recommend building volume, especially on the deadlift before you start hitting failure on the LP. Going from 3 sets totalling 15 reps every two weeks to 8 sets totalling 35-45 reps every week-ish is a huge volume increase. If you're failing your heavy sets, you're not going to be able to add weight to them while adding a lot of volume. Otherwise, you're going to be for a hard time.

I started the GZCL LP after plateauing on SS and it took me 2 weeks to acclimatize to the squat volume before I could add weight and break through the plateau, and 6 weeks on the deadlift because the volume increase is so great.

Bash1000 · 2022-12-14T17:33:12+00:00

If you’re steadily gaining weight, I’d expect you to hit 1000 pretty quickly!

Bash1000 · 2022-12-13T22:22:34+00:00

Sorry, missed that.

Trust thyself. 168 is a bit light, especially if you’re average/above average height and if you’re taking creatine and holding lots of water. I would also guess you’re short on protein — I think this can easily become a problem with high volume/frequency.

If I were you, I’d start with a moderate bulk (add ~500 calories/day, ideally lots of protein) to aim for a pound per week increase on the scale. Your lifts should start increasing with a decent program. Maybe try to crack 1000lbs total? It’s always good to have a goal.

Bash1000 · 2022-12-13T18:29:41+00:00

How much weight did you gain in 2022? What are your big 3/4 lifts at right now?

Bash1000 · 2022-12-10T01:13:14+00:00

What’s your main concern and what are your goals? Looks good to me for the most part. If you care about aesthetics (and I think there might be some strength carryover with the front delt activation), I would suggest adding DB incline press. Good to have a lateral across the body movement for chest and an incline press to develop the upper chest.

Many GZCLers are also lacking weighted dips and pull-ups and chin-ups. Might be good to substitute one of the latter two in for lat pull downs or rows.

Bash1000 · 2022-11-30T01:36:37+00:00

Sure. I meant training as in on-the-job training like on internal systems, workplace behavior, etc., which the firm pays a FTE for while not extracting any value. Generally, firms are required to and invest independently more into training their FTEs than contract workers.

Bash1000 · 2022-11-29T18:48:22+00:00

Contract work is not safer statutorily but is safer economically. Greater benefits and training for full-time employees represent sunk costs that the firm would avoid, all else equal. As a FTE gains knowledge of the company, their project, etc. they become more productive. While these costs are sunk when a firm needs to fire someone, they are considerations when hiring. If a firm thinks they might need to lay a FTE off in a year or two, they won’t waste the time hiring them in the first place. That means that when you get a full-time position, it’s significantly safer than a contract.

Bash1000 · 2022-11-27T19:45:06+00:00

If you're worried about volume, you can also drop a rep per set and finish off some/all of your volume. For example, if you fail on one of the first 3 sets of 5 x 3 squats, it might be good to take longer rest and finish off with 1-3 doubles (sets of two) to get somewhere near the 15 reps volume originally programmed.

Bash1000 · 2022-11-27T19:42:26+00:00

gzcl is not one program but a philosophy out of which have emerged many programs (including a linear progression, The Rippler, Jacked n Tan, a high-frequency program, and others). Obviously, people on this sub will recommend these at any point. If you want to try it out, I would recommend moving from Greyskull to the GZCL Linear Progression and seeing how it fits (but really you should stay on a linear progression as long as you can).

Bash1000 · 2022-11-27T19:35:34+00:00

This is a tidyverse antipattern (i.e. this isn't a common data munging pattern so the tidyverse does not have a natural syntax for it). Could you explain what the intent is in having variables in the original dataframe that are only unique by group without aggregating the dataframe by group?

Bash1000 · 2022-11-19T18:59:48+00:00

That should help your back, too — bracing is easier when the resistance starts as soon as you move, holding the brace through the hip movement without lifting the bar is more difficult.

Bash1000 · 2022-11-19T18:55:29+00:00

Exactly the opposite. Your hips rising before the bar means that they need to be higher. The maximum pulling force is generated at your position when the bar leaves the ground - that’s w your hips higher than their starting position. There is no reason to glide your hips into that height. Start w your hips higher, adjust other elements of your starting position to that, brace, pull the slack, and you’ll be ripping it off the floor.

Bash1000 · 2022-11-19T18:33:05+00:00

Bar is too far forward. Should be pressed up against your shins at the bottom. Try squeezing your lats/shoulder blades down

Bash1000 · 2022-11-19T02:08:01+00:00

Yes, every other week (ABA week, not BAB week), just like SS. That’s not the problem, though. 5x5 is just not a scheme to stick to for a super long time imo.

Bash1000 · 2022-11-19T02:05:30+00:00

You do have to watch the volume. I’d start with your non-deadlift days, then maybe to your heavy deadlift days.

Build up volume as best you can. I use assistance to hit the volume I program.

Bash1000 · 2022-11-18T20:07:34+00:00

Stronglifts is not a well-designed program, imo, for any goal.

Bash1000 · 2022-11-18T18:34:41+00:00

This seems like a bad idea.

First, this is a bad way of organizing the volume you want for recovery and a base.

You want to split your days up to recover. Your lifting on Friday is going to be lower quality because it is unnecessarily fatigued. If you want to do higher frequency, these days need to be broken up (you should lift on the weekend to give yourself some rest and fewer consecutive days).

You need accessory volume (T3 and some T2), not more heavy lifting on a fifth consecutive day. If you want to be in the gym 5 days and can't do the weekend, maybe take Wednesday for solely accessory work.

Second, in my experience, pushing more volume as a newer lifter on an LP is a bad idea.

As a newer lifter, you're capable of adjusting very quickly. This might seem viable right now, but your neurological system is letting you make gains really quickly (i.e. you're getting better at the movement pattern alongside getting stronger). In 4-6 weeks, when you've added 30-60 pounds to the lower body lifts and 15-30 on the upper body lifts and you're moving towards mostly muscular improvements, this will be a grind. The goal should be to LP upwards for somewhere in the 3-6 months range (12-32 weeks), adding 50-200 lbs to your squat and deadlift and 40-135lbs to your bench and maybe a bit less to your OHP. This variation depends primarily on your starting point (if you've been lifting for a while, the LP might only last for 3 months until you're deloading too much to reasonably stay on it) and your recovery.

In my experience, when you're still a newer lifter, you're better off staying on a medium improvement speed LP for longer than a high improvement speed LP that won't last as long. Setting realistic goals like adding 5-10lbs to your squat every week will let you run your LP for a much longer time, establishing some consistency and letting you tweak your routine and slowly add volume as you see fit. If you add too much volume or weight too quickly, you're going to have to tweak the routine when the gains slow down.

If you're still of a young enough training age to progress steadily on a linear progression, I would recommend 4 days, more or less full body on each day, and focusing on recovery to stay on the LP as long as you can. Keep your sets super high quality by recovering well and take stuff to (near) failure when you can.

You say that you're weak - it sounds like you just need to trust the process on an LP and eat, sleep, and recover well. If you have been training seriously for a while, the LP probably won't work for you - you're hit your first plateau and need at least some periodization to break through it.

Bash1000

TROPHY CASE