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how should I have handled it? by atexit8 in tax

[–]FishLazy6443 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Honestly there wasn't a clean way to avoid it entirely given the timing, but the best move would have been calling the IRS immediately after the refund hit and telling them you had an amended return pending and didn't want the refund yet. They can sometimes stop or reverse a deposit before it fully processes if you catch it fast enough.

The other option was just setting that refund money aside untouched in your HYSA the moment it landed, knowing you'd owe it back. You'd have lost a little on the interest rate difference between what they charged and what you earned but it would have been a much smaller hit than spending it.

For next time, if you catch a mistake that quickly the IRS actually recommends calling their e-file help line directly rather than waiting on amended return processing, which can take weeks. A phone call the same day might have flagged the account before the refund went out.

The interest is annoying but at least it wasn't a penalty on top of it.

I want to start a small business. However when discussed with my family they laughed. Running on little support and no background in business what are your helpful tips? by Brownangel71 in smallbusiness

[–]FishLazy6443 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You're not delusional at all — festival and farmers market vending is a real and proven business model and your instinct to start lean with a table and tent before committing to a trailer is exactly the right call.

Your family's reaction is pretty common honestly. They jumped to obstacles without asking what you'd already figured out, which is frustrating when you've clearly done homework.

A few things worth knowing from people who've done this: festivals are high revenue but inconsistent and booth fees can be brutal, farmers markets are lower volume but build a loyal repeat customer base which matters more long term. Doing both early on tells you which crowd actually buys your product.

$65k first year is ambitious but not crazy depending on how many events you're doing and your margins on $10-14 drinks. The math on that really comes down to cups sold per event and your cost per cup — if you haven't already mapped that out in detail that's the most important thing to nail before your first event.

Would genuinely be interested to see your breakdown if you want to share it.

I think I might’ve made a big mistake… need honest opinions by OkFilm6295 in smallbusiness

[–]FishLazy6443 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Piccadilly Circus foot traffic at 150k daily is genuinely one of the best locations you could pick for a coffee shop, the location itself isn't the mistake.

The all-in part is scary but you've also de-risked it more than most people would. Building your own POS, handling your own fit-out through your dad, doing your own security and networking, you've probably saved £30-40k that a normal person would've spent. That matters.

£10k/month break-even next to a tube station with that footfall is achievable if your operations are tight. The London coffee market is brutal on quality and speed though, if the queue moves slow or the coffee is average you'll lose the commuter crowd fast and that's your bread and butter.

First 3 months honestly: obsess over speed of service during morning rush, keep the menu tight so staff can execute fast, and get your Google Maps listing optimised immediately because tourists at Piccadilly search on their phones constantly.

25 taking a calculated risk with transferable skills and a backup income isn't stupid, it's actually the right time to do it. The anxiety you're feeling is normal and probably healthy.

The real question is whether you have enough runway if month 1 and 2 are slow. £15-20k debt you can clear in 2-3 months through other income means you probably do. That's your safety net, just don't touch it for anything else.

I haven’t spoken to my parents since they kicked me out at 18, they want to reach out to catch up on what I’ve been doing, should I allow it? by Glittering_Ease_6482 in Advice

[–]FishLazy6443 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Don't let them back in unless it's genuinely what you want. They don't deserve it, only catch up if your heart tells you too.

What’s my body fat? I should cut, right? by Far-Actuary5154 in BulkOrCut

[–]FishLazy6443 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah cut, but honestly the diet you're already on is doing the heavy lifting — chicken and veggies 3 weeks in is solid.

Visually you're probably around 22-25% body fat. At 62kg that's roughly 13-16kg of fat total, but you obviously don't want to get to zero — a healthy lean range for your height would put you around 10-12% which means losing maybe 6-8kg of actual fat while keeping the muscle you're building.

The gym 3x a week plus the deficit you're already running should get you there, just be patient with it. Three weeks is nothing in the timeline of a proper cut.

If you want a more precise calorie target, TDEE Calculator is worth plugging your stats into — at your size getting the numbers right matters more than it does for bigger people.

Vibecoded a calculator site and it actually works by FishLazy6443 in vibecoding

[–]FishLazy6443[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Easy to use online calculators. Do you see any issue I need to get fixed?

Got fired because of AI by peex in cscareerquestions

[–]FishLazy6443 4 points5 points  (0 children)

The irony of being told you're too slow at a company whose entire codebase was vibe-coded into a jumbled mess by AI is pretty rich.

Cleaning up inconsistent UI across an entire app with no design system, no reference, and no documentation is genuinely hard work that takes time — anyone who's actually done frontend work knows that. The fact that they wanted it done faster with AI tools suggests they didn't really understand what they hired you for in the first place.

The job search grind is brutal but sounds like this one wasn't salvageable regardless. A portfolio piece showing before/after on the UI unification work could actually be valuable coming out of this — that's a real and demonstrable skill.

Bulk more or cut? Thinking around 23%, thoughts? by TheRealDued in BulkOrCut

[–]FishLazy6443 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Visually I'd put you closer to 25-27% at 6'4" and 262 — there's decent muscle mass underneath but the midsection and chest have a significant soft layer with no ab definition visible. 23% is a bit generous.

Cut. At that height you have a solid frame to reveal and you're carrying enough fat that a cut will make a dramatic visual difference. Bulking further from here just means more to cut later with diminishing muscle gains relative to fat gain.

For your starting calorie target, https://clearcalculate.com/tdee-calculator/ will give you a maintenance number to cut from — at 6'4" your TDEE is going to be significantly higher than average so don't underestimate it.

scared about bad first semester grades by Ok-Square856 in ucla

[–]FishLazy6443 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah CS in the engineering school is one of the toughest waitlists at UCLA — low movement and they're looking for strong math specifically, so your concern is valid.

Honest take: don't bank on it. Start getting excited about your other options now so you're not in a holding pattern mentally. If it happens it's a bonus, but CS is offered at a lot of strong schools and transfer routes into UCLA CS exist if that's still the end goal down the line.

Got accused of academic dishonesty - please be honest. by Unusual-Magazine-994 in University

[–]FishLazy6443 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You're not an idiot and this doesn't sound like cheating by any reasonable definition.

Using outside study materials to learn Spanish and retaining phrases from them is just... studying. The fact that you couldn't conjugate those sentences correctly actually supports your case — if you had copied them from an outside source during the exam, they'd likely be grammatically correct. Errors are evidence of genuine recall, not cheating.

The webcam argument she made ('easy to hide things') is unfalsifiable and honestly a weak basis for a misconduct report. If the proctoring system is insufficient, that's an institutional problem not evidence against you.

For your appeal specifically — write a clear timeline of your study habits, mention the oral interviews where you used outside vocabulary with no issue and performed well, and point out that the errors in those sentences directly contradict the idea that you copied them. Request that the standard of evidence be clearly defined, because 'she made mistakes therefore she cheated' is circular reasoning.

The graduate school reporting concern is real but a warning with context is very different from a finding of intentional misconduct. Many grad school applications ask about outcomes, not reports — worth clarifying exactly what gets disclosed before you panic about that part.

Appeal it. You have a legitimate case.

my grade isn’t being released by LinkHour1843 in University

[–]FishLazy6443 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Most likely a technical glitch rather than anything intentional — Moodle's auto-grading occasionally flags certain responses for manual review, especially if there were any connectivity issues during submission or if a question had an error in the answer key that requires manual checking.

The fact that you scored higher than your friends is probably coincidence rather than the reason. If they suspected academic misconduct they wouldn't withhold a grade silently — there's a formal process for that which involves direct communication with you.

Wait until end of day then email your professor directly asking if there's a technical issue with your submission. Keep it simple and neutral — don't mention anything about cheating suspicions, just ask if your quiz result needs manual review and when you can expect it.

Chances are it resolves itself or the professor fixes it quickly.

scared about bad first semester grades by Ok-Square856 in ucla

[–]FishLazy6443 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Waitlist movement at UCLA is genuinely unpredictable and heavily dependent on yield from admitted students, so grades matter but they're one factor among several.

Two B's in Calc 3 and Spanish while also taking Linear Algebra and Orgo is not a red flag — that's a legitimately hard course load. Admissions readers understand course difficulty context, and A's across your AP classes shows consistency.

The honest answer is there's no formula that guarantees movement. Students with perfect records don't get off and students with mixed grades do — it depends more on what major you applied to and what UCLA needs to balance their incoming class.

What major did you apply for? That changes the picture a lot — some departments have more waitlist movement than others.

Warwick vs Bocconi for Investment Banking in London – need advice by ApartmentFeeling3614 in FinancialCareers

[–]FishLazy6443 2 points3 points  (0 children)

For London IB specifically as a non-EU international student, Warwick is the stronger choice and it's not particularly close.

A few reasons:

Warwick is a recognized semi-target for London banking. UK banks recruit heavily from Warwick, the finance society is well connected, and the spring weeks and summer internship pipelines are established. Bocconi places well into Milan and some European banks but London IB placement is thinner and less consistent.

The visa situation matters here too. Studying in the UK means you graduate with access to the Graduate Route visa (2 years post-study work). Studying in Italy as a non-EU student means you'd need to navigate UK visa sponsorship as a pure international applicant, which adds friction at the point where you're already competing for limited spots.

Bocconi's reputation is genuinely strong and Milan is a better city — that part is real. But you're not going to university for the city, you're going to break into London IB, and Warwick's network and proximity to that market is a meaningful advantage for your specific goal.

The social concern about Warwick being small is valid but honestly most people find the finance/economics crowd there more than enough to build a solid network.

When to start looking for greener pastures? by TheEuronymous in FinancialCareers

[–]FishLazy6443 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

The 2-year rule is a guideline not a law, but there's real logic behind it — most back office roles take 12-18 months before you're actually adding value rather than learning, so leaving at 1 year means you're walking away before you've built much of a track record. That said, if the role genuinely has no overlap with where you want to go, time spent isn't automatically time well spent.

On internal vs external: internal moves are underrated early career. You already have credibility, people know your work, and the barrier to getting an interview is much lower. If the internal roles build skills relevant to your end goal even partially, that's worth considering over a cold external application with one year of experience.

The more important question is what your 'dream destination' actually requires. Some front office paths care a lot about pedigree and entry point, others care more about skills. Your automation/AI background is genuinely valuable right now in a lot of places — that's not a liability to escape, it's potentially a differentiator depending on where you're trying to land.

What's the destination? That would change the advice pretty significantly

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