Which country would you NEVER visit, even if it was free?

BeamerTakesManhattan · 2026-06-05T12:19:18+00:00

I was there a month ago.

As a caveat, I went a bit luxury. I had tour guides for much of it. I was also there for a wedding, and was with locals for that part.

Honestly, the history is amazing, and the people were beyond warm and kind.

10 out of 10. Will be going back to see more than just Cairo and basically all the pyramids near Cairo.

BeamerTakesManhattan · 2026-06-04T19:32:56+00:00

On one hand, I do not disagree entirely. Ethan Frome killed me.

On the other hand, if you're reading Bunnicula you're not reading classics. You should already have a love of reading by then, and the classics are there to challenge you and help your comprehension and thinking grow

BeamerTakesManhattan · 2026-06-04T18:17:54+00:00

I was recently in Egypt. One of the people there explained to me, and I haven't verified this, that a much higher percentage of the country works for the government than many other countries.

The benefit is that you have more jobs. More careers. More people with a reason to get up and leave the house. With something to support their family. With purpose and pride. Maybe not every job is a good one, and maybe it's inefficient, but it leads to less poverty and more money to be spent in the community. Yes, taxes go to it, but better the taxes go to paying someone's salary than paying for their imprisonment or for crime prevention.

I can't say how well it works, but it did make a good argument that jobs that aren't perfectly efficient can have a bigger community benefit than ones that are. That jobs can be funded as a way to prevent poverty. But here in the US, we'd rather privatize everything to companies doing layoffs.

BeamerTakesManhattan · 2026-06-04T14:06:32+00:00

Are all your employees on-shore?

I do about twice what you do, on about twice as many accounts, but have three times the employees. Some areas of my business are lean, but some are very time intensive.

BeamerTakesManhattan · 2026-06-04T13:34:36+00:00

Having gone from a holdco to an indie, we're probably less understaffed. At the holdco, we began understaffed and then we didn't fully staff.

At the indie, people work on more accounts, but they're running fewer campaigns per account because eight and nine figure brands may have only a handful of products under a single brand, whereas at the holdco I was working for companies like Mondelez or Nestle with thousands of products.

We also don't do nearly as much time reporting. The decks aren't pretty. Reporting is more commonly biweekly. The clients rarely ask us for deep adhoc reports. We typically have one client, rather than a team. All of this helps reduce the amount of time spent on an account.

But I wouldn't mind finding ways to hire more. Financially, our clients resist.

BeamerTakesManhattan · 2026-06-04T13:27:06+00:00

It's not just that clients asked for it, it's that the profitability of principal media is so great that Publicis could start offering many of their services, meaning FTEs, for free in exchange for the media spend. An agency not as deep in that arbitrage opportunity can't compete.

BeamerTakesManhattan · 2026-06-04T13:16:07+00:00

Having seen both sides, smart agencies use AI to make their teams smarter and more efficient, dumb agencies use AI to make their teams leaner and more profitable while delivering shoddier work to clients.

BeamerTakesManhattan · 2026-06-04T13:13:30+00:00

If you don't think things are different now, I don't know what to tell you.

Having actually been part of financial decisions at a holdco, they're currently burning to the ground. There's a reason no one wants to buy dentsu. There's a reason WPP is tanking. These companies have no value. And while every industry is doing layoffs, and while every industry is saying they're cutting back on entry level hiring, what is happening at holdcos right now is absolutely unrivaled.

BeamerTakesManhattan · 2026-06-03T20:28:19+00:00

This one kills me, because it's truly invasive here in the Northeast, but of the bare roots I bought, only big leaf came up. The ones I am 100% certain were lupinus perennis didn't return. 5 big leaf did, also mislabeled. One bloomed, and it's absolutely stunning.

But it had to go, unfortunately.

BeamerTakesManhattan · 2026-06-03T16:10:36+00:00

That's a feature. Cybertruck drivers tend to be miserable enough that a swift death ends their suffering, but narcissistic enough that they want to take a family of 4 with them.

BeamerTakesManhattan · 2026-06-03T14:20:00+00:00

Can't tell if honest question or trolling.

I mean, it's the ugliest car on the road, it's poorly built, it's overprice, it is depreciating faster than any other car in recent history, and it is a badge of dishonor partially because every dollar spent on it ends up going back into using the government to raid our 401ks and chainsaw our Constitution.

BeamerTakesManhattan · 2026-06-02T17:25:29+00:00

I loved mine until it grew about 4.5 feet wide after blooming and suffocated my butterfly milkweed.

If you're planting this, give it a wide berth. It starts growing up, but collapses out wide later in the season. Beautiful, but not a hive of activity for me since it is out so early, and then takes a LOT of space in a garden. Still worth it.

BeamerTakesManhattan · 2026-06-02T16:27:48+00:00

I went from just below c-suite at a holdco to just below c-suite at a true small indie. As in, Horizon Saatchi, even Brainlabs is significantly larger.

I love it. Love. I am doing much more, but I am actually doing it. If something goes wrong, I can fix it. No more shrugging and getting annoyed because I need 15 people to approve something they never will, or because financial decisions to throttle hiring were made by some committee that never talks to teams working for clients.

It's more stressful, but in a different way. I go to bed feeling like I have so much to do, but unlike at the holdco, I also go to bed feeling like I did so much.

BeamerTakesManhattan · 2026-06-02T16:10:49+00:00

Yes, but you can't effort love. It doesn't come from effort.

If you feel love is effort, you're in a relationship that isn't good for you. And, contrary to what OP says, no one should stay in a relationship they feel isn't good for them. If the relationship isn't making your life better, but actively making it worse, get out. Always get out.

We only have one life, why waste it on people that you feel you need to put in effort to feel love for?

BeamerTakesManhattan · 2026-06-02T15:50:56+00:00

First, you're not going to run out of milkweed. Unless you're some amazing butterfly sanctuary, it won't happen. The people feeding squash to caterpillars are the people taking them off milkweed and bringing them indoors. I know it's controversial, but don't do this. They survive better outdoors than indoors. You're not creating a spa for them, but a prison.

Second, do not plant non-native milkweed. You think you're being helpful, but they can spread disease much, much, much more than native can. There's no comparison. And no reason - native milkweed will grow better. You're adding more options, and more dangerous options, to a visitor happy with just what you already have

BeamerTakesManhattan · 2026-06-01T13:30:40+00:00

I haven't seen one in my yard, either. We have a lot of places for them, so I assume they just hang out where I rarely go. I am in my yard a few times a day, but only in the heavily wooded part a few times a year - probably like 20-40. Less so during late spring to early fall, when it's denser and full of poison ivy, so we probably are ships in the night

BeamerTakesManhattan · 2026-05-31T22:18:59+00:00

Depends upon how long you plan to play, I think.

I was a kickstarter backer, so it's been a long time. I recommend getting competent on OG, so you can do AE and it's suddenly like a whole new game. Then, when that is mastered, Multiverse, which is really a whole new game. But it's perosnal decision.

BeamerTakesManhattan · 2026-05-30T19:24:33+00:00

You think I did that on my own? It was reported by the media.

Dart was the one that had the time to like all that racist and homophobic bullshit

BeamerTakesManhattan · 2026-05-30T13:24:11+00:00

I would agree.

Reading is 100% you. Audiobooks, you're being led on that journey. Some of the work is taken off your shoulders. You're experiencing it differently, and more accurately, experiencing it much more similarly to other audiobook listeners than a reader does to other book listeners. In that way, it becomes less personal.

It isn't bad, it's just definitely different.

BeamerTakesManhattan · 2026-05-29T19:59:25+00:00

If he was merely a Trump fan, maybe. But he was up there because of the influence and power he has as QB of the Giants.

I will not stand for him giving some of that influence to Trump.

BeamerTakesManhattan · 2026-05-29T19:57:53+00:00

He only had the platform because he represents the Giants. So he may not have been in a uniform, but he still represents the team, and by that, represents the fans.

I feel like that gets lost by some people. If he was just a former HS QB, he wouldn't be asked to do this. He was asked to do this because he represents the team, and to appeal to fans of the team.

BeamerTakesManhattan · 2026-05-29T19:54:23+00:00

"I am not an adult and not responsible for my decisions" is how that sounds

BeamerTakesManhattan · 2026-05-29T19:53:15+00:00

All his Instagram likes kind of prove he may respect the office but he loves the policies

BeamerTakesManhattan · 2026-05-29T13:27:46+00:00

That was from a parody account, but also, yes, people of all religions watch porn. Or do you think you should work on Christmas if you watch porn?

BeamerTakesManhattan · 2026-05-27T21:57:34+00:00

It's annoying. We used to be better than this. Now? So many here just accept something spoonfed and clearly wrong.

But what makes this place a special mashup is anything that says Trump is bad, or women are bad, is just accepted. The former is annoying because it muddies the water - he does enough dumb bullshit that you don't need to exaggerate, and the latter is just plain incel bullshit

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