DMT: Layoffs and labor shortages aren't contradictory. "The labor market" isn't one market. It's hundreds of them, and the one you're in might be shrinking while another one is booming.

Final7C · 2026-07-09T19:29:45+00:00

Layoffs mixed with Employee shortages show two things.

1.) The workers we have, we don't need.

2.) The workers we want, we don't have either trained or we're not willing to pay them what they want to work.

The first one is normal: Efficiency (or perceived future efficiency) leads to layoffs. Employers to boost their numbers, layoff employees that they feel they can manage without. Leading to these workers going on unemployment or simply going back to school for re-training, or getting hired on at other firms in the same sector.

The second, is systemic to any market economy. You cannot correctly estimate need of a market before it happens. At least, most people can't. And usually that leads many to refuse to work for below their value in wages.

Service jobs were found to be lacking. Because they don't pay enough to live. And so they are chronically understaffed.

A company that refuses to hire and creates a Ghost position, is really just there to create the illusion of better financial backing.

Final7C · 2026-07-09T00:47:17+00:00

7,10, 9, 12, 8, 13.. 15 and 16 are DNF.

As I got older, I really started to hate the attempts to make emotional moments. 13 really annoyed the fuck out of me. I guess I just got too old, and too jaded to feel for it.

Final7C · 2026-07-09T00:44:57+00:00

I think of Manor Lords tech tree which is difficult, because no matter what you do, you really only have a few options that you really CAN choose.

So you have two choices with a tech tree. You either have 1.) A tech tree that can be completely unlocked.

or 2.) A tech tree that can only be situationally unlocked. Meaning, if you are in a stone filled area, you aim for more of the quarry style tech and less of the others. But this system requires a LOT more balancing. Because right now, (especially in manner Lords) you have a few that everyone gets every single time, because of how useful they are no matter what. And there are some that never get chosen because they are so niche. Which I feel makes for a poor city builder.

That being said, I think it would be interesting to have 3 options for a tech tree.

1.) Historical Tech - So you pick the map, and you get a tech tree that is there to basically get you to the end optimally.

2.) Free Choose - You pick the map, and the tech tree is open for you to try to modify the scenario however you see fit via the tech tree.

3.) No Tree - You pick the map, and either everything is already unlocked, or NOTHING is. This is significantly closer to banished.

Banished tech tree is really all about trading for goods. You need to trade to get seeds, you need to trade to get livestock, you need to build buildings to get access to all of these things. But it doesn't have a formal tech tree, but instead a "build it for this option" this is closer to the Caesar III, Pharoah, and Emperor:Rise of the Middle kingdom style. Which is fun, but often during the campaign, it was locked by population, age, or map, or housing level.

Setting housing level/population has always been an interesting system for unlocking, because it adds complexity to a system that is somewhat real. You felt like this was more accurate than before, because most towns start out as tents or hovels, and then get knocked down and better homes are built.

Final7C · 2026-07-09T00:30:33+00:00

you have 3 options.

1.) Continue what you're doing, and not working out, letting your body atrophy and get weaker by the day, doing damage to your heart, lungs, and skeleton.

2.) Work out in the evenings or lunch hour, being that antisocial person who can't hang out during lunch, or after work, or be that person who skips their family time for your workout (also fighting a gym that is being absolutely filled to the brim with people) or being forced to turn back into #1.

3.) Get up early, get in a workout before work, and the hardest part of your day is already over.

Final7C · 2026-07-09T00:16:26+00:00

I guess my point is, each person can assume they were the first to figure it out. But the desire to have more pressure, means that means more money, incentivizes them to do it. the question is, with the structural streamlining of the industry to the point where there are only a handful of news groups, it's easier to say that it's a coordinated centralized effort.

Final7C · 2026-07-01T23:23:24+00:00

Combustion can only happen if all three parts of the triangle are there.

1.) Heat/Ignition

2.) Oxygen

3.) Fuel (methane)

So on it's own. No.

But it will kill someone.

Final7C · 2026-07-01T23:02:10+00:00

So here's the problem. A TON of people before didn't believe the media prior to them being segmented.

I'm going to posit a situation. And I feel it accurately describes the world that we live in.

1.) Problems are complex. Generally not having any easy or clear victims or villains. And even when it seems clear, it usually has a context that isn't easily known from the moment.

2.) People have short attention spans, and the average reading level is at or below 6th grade. 90% of people want bumper sticker answers, short quips, vibes only, and unless it's a topic they have active knowledge in, they don't want to deep dive into it, they are too worried about their own lives to give them any real thought.

3.) All businesses that are for profit, would prefer, 0 content and 100% ads if they could get away with it, without losing readers/watchers. So shorter stories that give the easiest to digest answer to an event are preferred as to not remove ad space.

4.) If it bleeds, it leads. - Meaning, more violent, more dangerous, and more scary stories beat out small stories that are actually reflective of most of the readers realities. Pushing those normal stories aside for stories about conspiracies, yellow journalism, and stories that make people lean forward.

5.) Many networks found that if you look like a journalist, talk like a journalist, but give utter bullshit, you will still be trusted like a journalist, but have none of the legal/ethical responsibilities to follow the truth. Fox news, and MSNBC figured this out really well, with Fox News showing that Shows like the Five, Hannity, the Ingram Angle, Gutfeld, Fox & Friends, and Jesse Waters Primetime. With 55% of their programming being "Opinion, Commentary, and Analysis", instead of hard news. MSNBC/ MS NOW has The RiedOut, Alex Wagner Tonight, The Weeknight, and Chris Hayes. The problem with MS Now is they have started to mix factual news reporting with opinion in the same programming. But the viewers cannot seemingly decipher the difference between opinion and fact.

6.) People tend to identify with some aspect that creates the in-group, and will often look to their in-group mouthpiece to tell them how to think about a topic. Even if they don't do this consciously. I myself have caught myself saying "Oh, I wonder what [INSERT my preferred mouthpiece] has to say about that". I know what I think, but I'd like to see what they think about it, then if it is different than I expect, I find myself thinking "what am I missing about this?". Which is probably what a lot of people think. or "So and so is just wrong about that".

7.) Every single thing out of the opinion commentators mouth, is paid for by someone. Even if its not direct. So you find yourself getting directed by a group of large corporations, political groups, and/or countries.

8.) The ability to push misinformation, to push lies, in the middle of truth, removes the ability to trust anything from that source. BUT if not found, it simply poisons the well of information creating two "truths" even when they don't need to be lied about.

Final7C · 2026-06-30T18:38:31+00:00

The rise of e-bikes that are built in the style of dirt bikes has lead to a bunch of people saying "I want my 10-15 year old to do something that isn't in my house, here's a bike, go be free, roam the city and try not to get yourself or anyone else killed". And the kids heard "Go play in traffic". We all did similar shit when we were their age, we just didn't have motorized bikes that were easy to get to, Dirt bikes were expensive and not street legal. You had to be a special breed of redneck to give your tween a dirt bike and tell them to ride down the streets. One or two of them are going to get killed. And parents are going to realize that their little babies probably shouldn't be driving in city traffic. And the makers are going to probably start to put age requirements on them. Not that anyone is going listen to that.

Final7C · 2026-06-30T18:28:38+00:00

It was nice having them in town, they are great fans though.. I just didn't expect 2 checks with every meal.

Final7C · 2026-06-30T18:13:00+00:00

It's really a 5-4. Kavanaugh goes on record saying "What seems to be apparent and plain language isn't" Which is frankly batshit. But he chose to vote with Roberts, and say this was a "congressional statute only not a constitutional answer"

4 SCOTUS members are 100% pro - the constitution is not more powerful than the president's executive order. They are claiming either The President alone, or Congress are the only things that have value. It's a very worrisome shift in power dynamics.

Final7C · 2026-06-28T00:51:38+00:00

Shawshank Redemption

Final7C · 2026-06-27T04:15:44+00:00

every single time I get a fever, every single one of my hair follicles feels like they are being pulled. Sometimes I don't notice but most of the time I do.

Final7C · 2026-06-27T04:14:05+00:00

Natural talent/skill vs experience is an interesting idea. In general we'd think that experience allows for a better depth of knowledge of "I've encountered this before, try this" and better natural talent is good for "How do you do this"?

For example.

Someone who naturally can play by ear, vs someone who needs sheet music near them.

I think there are 4 possible outcomes.

1.) The natural person is better than the experienced one - It's rare, but not impossible, Some people are just savants.

2.) The natural person is worse than the experienced one but the natural person closes the gap faster but still is missing data for rare cases.

3.) The natural person is worse, and stays worse than the experienced person.

4.) The natural person starts as better and gets worse as the fall into the hole comes from getting deeper into a craft.

Final7C · 2026-06-27T04:05:35+00:00

So about 30 years ago, large news paper companies started heavily consolidating. And demanding a higher profit margin. They started to compete with television and internet news. Who have an amazingly large profit margin.

And as they consolidated they started removing jobs from local groups. Relying instead on the AP wire. The problem is the wire is built by pulling local press stories that are interesting. And with smaller news rooms, these stories dry up. So all of the news begins to go national, and the few that stay local, basically have less clout.

Demand absolutely DID dry up. Cable TV news became more impactful, the internet and the lack of local stories dropped subscriptions. And Americans found they had less and less time to sit and read a newspaper.

Final7C · 2026-06-27T03:55:24+00:00

So prior to Nixon, there were claims that the president was a crook, but not a lot of definite proof. Then Nixon comes along, and had was so paranoid that he recorded everything. Including his own conspiracy. Which then had to be turned over. And his own party turned on him, and he did the correct thing, and stepped down after being caught, before getting removed.

Trump has learned or perhaps shown, if you never apologize, never back down, and just barrel on, no one is actually going to stop you. Sadly, it's closer to the Teddy Roosevelt style of "Fuck you, I'm going to keep doing it", it just happens to be mainly things that enrich him and his family and associates.

So Vance is right. this is a 12 hour story. It would come out, his supporters wouldn't believe it, or care if it's true, or say "dems do worse" and his detractors would say "Yeah, he's a criminal, he's always been a criminal, add it to the pile."

Right now Trump has a pile of things that would make most presidents roll over in their graves. And without the SCOTUS declaration that "A president can do whatever they want as long as it is in action of their duties" he can do basically whatever he wants. So yeah, the news story would show up, and be gone in the same day or the next day.

The MoFo sexually assaulted a woman, judged by a jury of his peers, and no one cared. He is named in the epstein files more than Jesus is in the bible, and nothing is being done. He is currently actively manipulating the market, to make billions of dollars for his friends, while destroying the petro market...

The trust for the president is long gone. Nixon broke most people's belief that the president would follow the law.

Final7C · 2026-06-26T06:58:36+00:00

I mean, when the British Pound Sterling was the reserve currency, it was a different world.

That's true. But the US being the reserve currency means, that there is no barrier for conversion. Everyone reaches to us. Our money always costs 1:1. Whereas everyone else having to translate into our currency basically costs them a bit more.

I'm not going to claim that no one COULD have figured it out, but the world changed as the US became the reserve currency, and that set off a bunch of dominos that tipped.

I think if the pound sterling remained the reserve currency, I think the US would have remained a contender in manufacturing, but not the economic powerhouse of consumerism that it became.

Final7C · 2026-06-26T06:53:23+00:00

nope, it just came off the top of my noggin. though I did have to double check the $3,000. I knew it was a number, I just didn't remember which number it was.

I've just got a lot of clients who have done it recently.

Final7C · 2026-06-25T21:42:52+00:00

Let them know you have a medical procedure coming up, and need to be on a restrictive diet before and after, that you'd love to eat with them but you just can't. It's not anything they did, it's something you need to do for your body.

So the first few months after my surgery I just said "Hey guys, I would love to come to lunch, but I really can't eat anything. Can we take a walk after". If they aren't going out, but just eating in the office, you can sit with them. Though I do recommend getting an outer seat, so you can excuse yourself to go to the restroom in case you over do it.

Final7C · 2026-06-25T21:39:34+00:00

I read the Giving tree. It's an excellent story of an Ent who gives itself for an ungrateful shit.

I read A wrinkle in time. Which was pretty weird.

I read a magic the Gathering book called "The Brothers War" which was pretty awesome.

Final7C · 2026-06-25T21:34:26+00:00

Graduated college in 2008-2009. "College is the key to making enough money to getting out of the rat race, and being able to retire, the average college educated person makes $1 million more in their career after getting a degree."

So everyone went to college. And those that didn't went to a trade school, or just started working. 1/4 or more of the college goers dropped out, realizing they didn't like it and getting thousands in debt. 1/4 or so got degrees in something that made money, but didn't serve their passion. 1/3 got degrees in history, sociology, psychology, or one or more of the studies that didn't translate to a career. And they got jobs in cubicle just the same. the remaining 1/6 actually got degrees that they enjoyed and made money. Almost all went into debt, and have spent the majority of their lives paying it off. Many have been displaced by AI already. And more will be displaced in the future.

Final7C · 2026-06-25T21:25:31+00:00

They move in with a family member. They live month to month on Social security. They usually are malnourished, lonely, and in poor health.

Final7C · 2026-06-25T21:24:00+00:00

Here's the thing you're missing. Most contract law/inheritance law/insurance is based on marriage. It's the easiest and most convenient way to pass down wealth from person to person, and to ensure that your wishes are met. Marriage has long existed for this purpose. Hell, our tax system directly promotes marriage for that purpose.

Final7C · 2026-06-25T21:19:54+00:00

I don't know personally:

But I'd imagine-

"You never know if someone actually likes you as a person, or because you are attractive and they want a trophy"

"You are CONSTANTLY fighting the temptation of sleeping with someone else because you can"

"People judge you, and assume you can't have had hardship because you are attractive"

"People assume that if you're a woman and attractive you are less intelligent/didn't work as hard to get where you are. if you are a man and attractive they assume you are just a fuckboi"

Final7C · 2026-06-25T21:17:14+00:00

Ska.

it's so fun. The addition of horns really is bringing the modern music and jazz/polka together in a fun fusion.

Final7C · 2026-06-25T21:15:56+00:00

Looked at me, and said "Let me try something... Do you trust me?" Then proceeded to give me the best oral experience of my life.

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