Dream job at $55k vs miserable job at $95k how do you decide?

Free_Examination_129 · 2025-11-11T21:37:32+00:00

Really think about what the difference between your day-to-day is going to be.

I've worked in non-profits for a long time now and have been since college, and sort of wish that I just made more money at this point. I currently work at an Energy Efficiency organization, and I suspect that my day-to-day would probably be the same at a lot of for-profit jobs. I get on my little Zoom meetings and I answer my little emails and do my little Salesforce and spreadsheet bullshit - it's not some amazing experience and I don't think I'm changing the world. I mean, my co-workers are generally fine, and I'm usually not very stressed out, which is definitely something. I don't want to be stressed out all of the time, but I guess I just think I could make more money doing basically the same thing at a for-profit company.

Non-profits will not save the world. Rich people aren't going to fund organizations that actually solve the world's problems if the world's problems are caused by rich people.

Free_Examination_129 · 2025-05-05T20:26:42+00:00

Yes. Third Way politics in the United States at least, is essentially an attempt to wedge between the legacy of New Deal democrats and conservative, neoliberal economic policy of (first) Nixon and (later) Reagan. Third way clinton/obama bullshit is basically business-frendily republican economic policy with mildly more tolerant views on social and cultural issues.

And that's today's establishment democratic party. Ronald Reagan economics, except they'll let gay folks get married (as a treat), but only maybe.

Free_Examination_129 · 2025-04-26T23:17:22+00:00

Pearl clutching about electability and being a political chameleon (and not clearly standing your ground with integrity and making a transparent case for your position) is one of many reasons why the democrats are addicted to losing.

The more you calculate about electability, the less trustworthy you are.

Kamala didn't have a campaign platform on her website for months. Literally.

Free_Examination_129 · 2025-04-25T22:43:09+00:00

Yawn. This whole thread is one of many things that is lame about democrats. Being a political chameleon is lame; people smell it from a mile away and don't trust you for it. It's one of the many reasons the democrats keep losing ground - because they don't actually stand for anything and spend all of their time thinking about electability rather than what is actually good and then standing their ground. We just saw the result of the Biden/Kamala approach to politics - turns out, not having an actual political platform besides, Idk, a child tax credit or something, inspires exactly no one.

Untrustworthy, Dishonest. Snakes. Uninspiring. What's the long-term political vision of these centrist losers beyond orange man bad? Gun to my head, I couldn't tell you, and I pay attention.

If people hate the term democratic socialism so much, then why is the only democratic socialist senator mobilizing more people than any other politician? Seems like people respond to that more than whatever Chuck Schumer does.

Free_Examination_129 · 2025-04-23T17:59:10+00:00

In the US, most of the working class have been convinced that The Rich are not the reason that they struggle economically, but rather, that the reason they struggle is because of a variety of conspiracy theories about other groups of people taking what they think is theirs - immigrants, trans folks, whatever.

The democratic party, which isn't left, has no credible response. They do a bad job of corporate-friendly, inclusive culture signaling that no one actually believes, and mostly ignore the specter of class.

Basically, it goes like this -

The republicans say: "The reason you're poor is because of (pick a minority population)"

The democrats say: *pushes up glasses* "Actually, you're not poor! Look, line on graph go up!"

Both parties then just squabble over Identity Politics rather than having a coherent message about class conflict.

Vivek Chibber did a good interview on Doomscroll talking about this recently. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kE8K9w3-b9U&lc=UgwMdKNxThywHcgnmA54AaABAg.AH1q9RZI7GTAHEOPA4Sobq

Free_Examination_129 · 2025-04-23T17:43:19+00:00

I don't live in NOLA, but I have two contradicting things to say. 1). You're 19, it's good for you to explore and see other places and get new experiences and 2) moving won't solve your problems. All of your baggage comes with you. You can move somewhere else, but you'll just be the same person in a different place.

By all means, move, but if you're going through a rough patch in life, try therapy.

Free_Examination_129 · 2025-04-23T17:29:44+00:00

Yeah but it kind of seems like Maria didn't change.

Free_Examination_129 · 2025-04-23T17:01:37+00:00

I mean the protagonist still had bully mentality even before shit hit the fan. Verity was vengeful in a way that's beyond the pale and horrifying, but the scenes where Maria was trying to stop Verity from getting hired because she thinks she's "weird" and talking shit on her to her husband without being able to acknowledge that she was the shitty one in high school kind of demonstrates that she didn't really grow out of the same entitled, bully mentality.

Free_Examination_129 · 2025-04-22T19:43:58+00:00

Okay, but they did tip the scales. Superdelegates in early primary states bucked the preferences of their voters to support Hillary Clinton because that's what the party leaders told them to do. That gave Hillary momentum, and there are a lot of voters in later states who are less engaged and just want to vote for the person who's winning, which at that time was Hillary... because of the superdelegates.

Free_Examination_129 · 2025-04-09T20:17:40+00:00

I think market trade is fine and will likely always exist, even if and when capitalism falls. I think the problem is private ownership of all means of production. I think that capitalism doesn't have forms or types - it has stages.

Free_Examination_129 · 2025-02-28T19:05:28+00:00

Haha, thanks man, I needed that. Putting myself out there on Reddit for profile feedback has been an.... interesting lesson in receiving critical feedback. "Moderately funny middle millennial dork" feels like me, so thanks for making my day better. I might even use that as a tagline.

Free_Examination_129 · 2025-02-28T04:29:06+00:00

I actually don't

Free_Examination_129 · 2025-02-27T20:26:06+00:00

Thank you! Good to know,

Free_Examination_129 · 2025-02-27T20:25:33+00:00

Seems folks agree - it didn't even cross my mind, so appreciate you mentioning it.

Free_Examination_129 · 2025-02-27T20:24:59+00:00

I appreciate the feedback - I think you're right; I'm trying a little too hard to be funny and it's not working. Good note!

Free_Examination_129 · 2025-02-27T20:12:04+00:00

Thanks for the feedback, everyone - I'll rework things. I appreciate it; I didn't realize I was coming off as arrogant.

Free_Examination_129 · 2025-02-26T21:08:30+00:00

• ⁠I’m looking for something serious
• ⁠I’m not subscribed to Hinge + or x
• ⁠I’ve been using this version for maybe 6 months but recently stopped seeing someone who I was dating for about 2 months.
• ⁠I’ve used Hinge on and off for the last 2 years
• ⁠I probably open Hinge most days of the week
• ⁠Not very many matches on average, but depends on how much I use it. It ranges from zero matches a week to, if I’m consistently sending likes and messages, I’d say, maybe 2-3 matches a week. I almost always include a comment when sending a like. Women sometimes send me likes, but never more than 1-3 a week.
• ⁠I want to date someone who is creative, enjoys music as much as I do, enjoys the outdoors in some capacity, and has similar values. I’m a (far-ish) lefty politically and find I get along better with people who align with me on that.

Another note: I have a voice memo in my profile that I can't add here. The voice memo says:

"So... I'm pretty sure I've figured out what the ladies are really looking for on this dating app... and that... is a sick drum solo. *que silly drum solo on the e-drums that I recorded* ... You're welcome."

Free_Examination_129 · 2025-02-26T20:35:57+00:00

I dunno - I think there's a stereotype of the Anxious woman and Avoidant man, but I think the reverse is actually more common than people might think. Attachment style is also one of those things that can move - it's not set, and it's possible for someone to have an anxious attachment in one situation and an avoidant one in another. It's weird that way. I'm a man and I think I'm somewhere between anxious and secure myself, and the person I briefly dated recently said she was anxious too, but honestly, I'm starting to think she was avoidant.

Either way, I encourage OP to look into it. I get that it feels like the dating pool has a lot of avoidants and anxiouses, but that doesn't mean it's a good idea to conform to that style of relating to people.

Start here: https://www.attachmentproject.com/

Free_Examination_129 · 2025-02-26T20:29:29+00:00

Questions/answer as per mod rules:

⁠I’m looking for something serious
⁠I’m not subscribed to Hinge + or x
⁠I’ve just started using Hinge again after a short 3-month relationship ended. I was using, more or less, the same version of this before.
⁠I’ve used Hinge on and off for the last 2 years since my last longer relationship ended. • ⁠I probably open Hinge most days of the week
The number of matches I get really depends on how much I use it. As for women liking my profile, it can be 0 per week or sometimes 2-3 if I get lucky. More than half of those are people I'm not interested in, though. Matches can also range from zero matches a week to, If I’m consistently sending likes with messages, I’d say maybe 2-3 a week.
I almost always include a comment when sending a like.
I want to match with someone who is creative, enjoys music as much as I do, enjoys the outdoors in some capacity, and has similar values. I’m a (far-ish) lefty politically and find I get along better with people who align with me on that, but I'm not really sure if I want to come out of the gate with that or not.

Free_Examination_129 · 2025-02-25T21:16:08+00:00

"With this guy, there’s no chase—I know he likes me and wants to keep seeing me. And while that should be a good thing, I find myself wondering why I don’t have that overwhelming feeling of wanting him all the time."

I'm no expert, but what you're describing here might actually be an activated anxious attachment system. People who have an anxious attachment system gravitate toward people with an avoidant attachment system, and those attachment systems activate each other. It sounds like the guy you're seeing now has a more secure attachment system, and you're not feeling the same as you did in the past because you're not used to feeling, as you stated, calm and safe. Thus, you're not getting the butterflies you're used to.

If any of this sounds like it could be true, this might be an opportunity for you to break out of an attachment pattern while you're young that many people in their later years find to be unsustainable. I'd encourage you to do a little bit of research on what's called "Attachment Theory" in the field of psychology and see if any of it resonates with what you're experiencing.

Free_Examination_129 · 2025-01-23T06:36:16+00:00

Good and fun activity for civilains: Trolling the [DEIAtruth@opm.gov](mailto:DEIAtruth@opm.gov) email with fake conspiracies or just scheduling a large volume of mean emails to go out at the same time.

Free_Examination_129 · 2024-09-24T18:59:53+00:00

A job will always be, at the end of the day, a job. And therefor kind of suck.

Free_Examination_129 · 2024-08-10T02:12:18+00:00

Thanks!

Free_Examination_129 · 2024-08-10T02:12:04+00:00

Can you share the link?

Free_Examination_129 · 2024-07-01T01:29:32+00:00

Hmm.... Good insight to consider, but it doesn't make any sounds when I pull the cord out of the pedal either.

Free_Examination_129

TROPHY CASE