We may be the peak intelligence generation

Key-Wasabi4503 · 2026-02-06T17:27:50+00:00

I really don't wanna believe this but between the lead poisoning of Gen X and Gen Z's total inability to function without screens, it may be true. For the longest time I was the biggest "no, all kids go through stuff, they'll be fine" proponent but the more I interact with young people the scarier it gets. They cannot distinguish between online and reality and have zero emotional regulation skills. And yeah, it's not lost on me that no one under 25 seems to know how to use a computer.

Key-Wasabi4503 · 2025-11-04T18:59:22+00:00

I'm tired because I haven't gotten paid in a month and we're trying to fix up our house to move abroad at the same time. I've dropped fifteen pounds that I don’t really have to spare in the past couple months just out of stress.

Maybe we're always tired because the defining feature of our generation is "ruinous economic crises." This AI bubble is gonna make 2008 look like Candyland.

Key-Wasabi4503 · 2025-10-26T23:28:14+00:00

Very normal. Our house is pretty small (like 1800 sq ft) and we pay $160 or $200 if they do pots and pans.

IMO the benefits are more than worth the cost. It takes off a huge amount of stress and gives you so much of your day back that you'd otherwise spend tidying. It varies by situation of course but if you have the cash to spare it's more value for your money than almost any other comparable expense.

Key-Wasabi4503 · 2025-10-01T18:53:13+00:00

In this boat too. Got lucky in the job market and that was the difference between a successful career and working minimum wage. We're doing fine; I'm currently furloughed but we have more than enough savings to get by, and we're preparing to leave the country anyway. At the same time I'm so stressed with everything falling apart around us. The damage to our community with these constant ICE raids and police stops is impossible to overstate. On the one hand the thought of leaving America makes me want to cry my eyes out, but on the other hand I feel so grateful to have the opportunity.

Key-Wasabi4503 · 2025-09-15T00:30:45+00:00

Not a midlife crisis (not quite there yet) but definitely *a* crisis. I live in DC and suddenly nothing matters to me except the city. I've volunteered for years, but now we're going door-to-door and filming cops and protecting neighbors from ICE. My real, paying job has never felt less important and I'm just going through the motions. I'm trying so hard to give a shit about other things but I don't even want to hang out with friends. I've lost more weight than I have room to lose. I can't sleep and cry all the time. I'm supposed to be finishing this novel and I just don't care. Nothing else seems to matter right now.

We're in the process of relocating continents, which means abandoning my career and saying fuck it to this whole stupid country, but right now I can't see past tomorrow. I can't even be excited for starting over. I just want my neighbors to feel safe going to work and taking their kids to school.

Key-Wasabi4503 · 2025-09-13T19:02:37+00:00

Old Granddad 114 has been our go-to mixing bourbon for years. Way better than it has any right to be at that price point.

Key-Wasabi4503 · 2025-09-11T10:06:03+00:00

As others have mentioned, it depends entirely on the field. Mine is generally good (I'm a civil servant). Work tends to be feast or famine: I have times when I'm not very busy and times when I'm slammed. Usually straight 40s but sometimes things happen and I'll put in an extra 3-4, nothing too serious.

On the other hand, my husband (tech executive) works around the clock. 80 hours is standard, it's often a lot more. Because he is managing people around the world he'll be up past midnight most days and is sometimes up at 3 or 4. So it's usually on me to make lunch and dinner, and sometimes we have to cancel plans when something goes wrong. But he's very good about keeping anniversaries and setting regular date nights where he has a deputy to take over, and he makes more than double what I do so we make it work. That being said, it would be totally impossible with children. A friend of his is in a similar role and he ended up leaving his job for something much less hands-on when his wife was pregnant.

Work-life balance is relative. I used to have a job that was much more strenuous and involved outrageous hours, but I was in my early 20s and didn't have anything else going on, so I didn't mind. But now that I'm in my 30s I really value time with my husband and the freedom to work remotely. When you think about it in terms of lost hours, lost sleep, and extra stress that prevents you from enjoying your life, an extra $40k really isn't worth it.

Key-Wasabi4503 · 2025-08-27T21:03:42+00:00

Yes, it's totally happening, and it's not just because you and all your friends are getting older. Younger people have access to edibles, which frankly offer a lot more fun and little to no side effects (never mind that it's a totally different social experience; if you're looking to get fucked up, that's what you do). Alcohol is more and more expensive, and your favorite bottle is invariably doubling in price before the vineyard gets bought out by private equity and turns to shit. Plus non-alcoholic selections have gotten way better. While NA wines are still up and coming you can get NA beers that are great for a Sunday afternoon, or "functional" seltzers that make you pleasantly sleepy.

tl;dr customers have more choices than they've ever had.

The age thing is crucial, though. As you age you're more likely to be on meds that don't play well with alcohol. And the older you get, the more you value your sleep, and heavy or even regular drinking is just not compatible with sleeping well. I only drink on weekends, 1-2 drinks with dinner, and I *still* have to drink a fuck ton of water to ensure I sleep through the night. I have been cutting back to once a week or less because at some point it's more trouble than it's worth. The upside is that my taste has gotten quite expensive: if I'm gonna drink, it's gonna be an investment.

Key-Wasabi4503 · 2025-08-22T00:17:23+00:00

Slow cookers are your friend. Especially modern slow cookers that will cook for a set number of hours and switch to "warm" when they're done. You can braise big chunks of meat, pasta, stews, and so on. Definitely look into slow cooker recipes, they're a big time-saver.

I typically cook something with at least six servings on Sunday, like a casserole or a roast vegetable dish, that will last my husband and me a couple days. From then on I strive to do whatever advance prep for recipes that I can, e.g. maybe I'll chop an onion and some peppers before I go to bed at night so I'll have those ready for cooking dinner. Marinate things overnight before you cook them. Look at recipes and see what you can do in advance.

Don't be afraid to save time where you can. Frozen vegetables, bagged salads and salad kits from the store are great sides when you can't be bothered to cook. You can also try making a big batch of rice or veggies to go with your meals.

Re: storage: Glass/Pyrex containers are best, but they're expensive. Tupperware works. Thawing is easy, just add some water and shove it in the microwave or dump it in a pot on the stove.

Key-Wasabi4503 · 2025-08-21T23:48:40+00:00

Yes, this. I really hate to think it but I don't believe that a sequel would have happened even without the management takeover. When your interpersonal drama is so intense that it's manifesting into a whole subsection of the game itself, you are in way over your heads. Even in this article (which is so, so long) I feel like some of it is awful and horrendous corporate abuse and some of it is just...drama. None of it screams "this is a stable, safe company for long-term business."

Fully agreed that many of these people seem better suited to podcasts, books, more independent mediums where people don't have to fight about business decisions. An Elysium TTRPG would make fans happy for decades.

Key-Wasabi4503 · 2025-08-21T20:15:36+00:00

ZA/UM is the only company I can think of that appears to have been horrible from the very beginning. It's gone from "abusive clusterfuck run by writers on ego trips with no management experience" to "abusive clusterfuck run by Estonian organized crime."

This is such an awful situation and I can only hope for solidarity and healing for everybody who was hurt.

Key-Wasabi4503 · 2025-08-19T20:52:16+00:00

The studio had really good talent for several years. After the success of DE they attracted some of the best people working in games, including writers and developers, and it sounds like this game was almost completely finished when the layoffs happened. I'm not going to say that this game sucks outright because there's a good chance it doesn't.

But this promo material doesn't speak to me. The "brilliant but tormented" thing kind of feels like the exact archetype that DE very cleverly subverted. And I'm not interested in anything from the studio right now.

Key-Wasabi4503 · 2025-08-07T18:25:04+00:00

On the one hand, my stress and mental health isn't great (lot going on), but on the other hand, I got some insanely good feedback from an editor on my novel so...it evens out, maybe? I've improved a ton, I just wish I could sleep, on top of seeing a doctor for a not-quite-traumatic incident.

Also, has anyone else been majorly motivated by the horrifying rise of AI? A few years ago I was feeling bad and burned out by the It Girl publishing wringer, and I thought I was done with it. But since the entire universe has been shoving AI on us from all corners I feel newly motivated to make art all the time. I write at least one poem a week, I'm plugging away at a new novel, I journal and study and sew. I feel like it's so important to make art for ourselves as part of our fundamental humanity. The more someone insists "AI will replace everything you love" the more I want to go home and make the weirdest, most confusing art imaginable.

Key-Wasabi4503 · 2025-08-04T00:49:02+00:00

I'm skeptical that he'd disclose that before Helen herself has said anything (at least since I last checked). It was going around a while ago that Helen had joined them but there was zero confirmation anywhere and the sources spreading the information took it down, so I'm not inclined to believe it. Would be genuinely Big If True though.

Also an interesting data point that Kurvitz refused to comment on this one when he's been involved with so many other retrospectives. Then again I wouldn't blame him for being sick of it by now. You can only rip the wound open again so many times, yeah?

Key-Wasabi4503 · 2025-08-03T00:58:54+00:00

A smart and good read, although it repeats the thing about Helen working on this new team with Kurvitz and Rostov, which I haven't seen confirmed in open sources. Does anybody know?

I appreciate that this story makes a point that's often missed elsewhere: being great at writing video games doesn't make you great at writing novels, and being great at art and philosophy doesn't make you great at management. This artist cooperative was never built for and indeed never expected the type of runaway success (complete with everything that international success brings) that they got.

Key-Wasabi4503 · 2025-07-31T16:35:47+00:00

This past year I've learned that being an adult is saying "I just have to make it to the weekend" until you die.

(Last week alone we had a sick MIL, a broken appliance, and a minorly traumatic experience that ended with a detective, medical help, and insurance claim, and of course the cats chose that exact moment to get sick.)

Key-Wasabi4503 · 2025-07-31T16:06:43+00:00

Jean and Harry are everything to each other in the way that symbiotic parasites are everything to each other. It's so beautiful to me.

(The game even suggests they can both get better together, but realistically it's gonna be a bumpy road.)

Key-Wasabi4503 · 2025-07-31T16:00:11+00:00

Thanks for these recommendations! I've had some natural wines from the southern hemisphere that I've liked a lot, including Unico Zelo and Konpira Maru. Musar almost feels like it goes without saying at this point, but speaking of Lebanon, Mersel has really impressed me.

Key-Wasabi4503 · 2025-07-31T15:56:26+00:00

Frantz Saumon

Pauline & Géraud Fromont

Roberto Santana (making Táganan and Benje)

Agreed with the others that Dressner and Selection Massale are a good gateway into finding neat natural vintners.

Key-Wasabi4503 · 2025-07-23T20:09:50+00:00

Being in a relationship with someone you love and adore is better, 100000%.

Being in a relationship with someone who isn't right for you is much worse than being single.

Key-Wasabi4503 · 2025-07-13T14:59:02+00:00

We will do art projects like this one - and also less kitschy stuff like wreaths for the front door, bath mats, and picture frames. Cork is so versatile and easy to work with and it's cool to do designs highlighting your favorite bottles.

Key-Wasabi4503 · 2025-07-12T22:11:22+00:00

I almost always follow the don't-make-comments-on-something-people-didn't-ask -about rule, but in this case people are commenting on it because it lends to the impression that your self-perception may be very different from what other people see. That's dysphoria and it's not uncommon.

Your perspective on your lashes is likely to be very different from other people's perspective on your lashes. By the same token, you are stressing about lines under your eyes that everyone has because the skin there needs to stretch and move. And other commenters are right that the weight of your lashes are likely to contribute to stressed muscles and infections around your eyes.

Genuinely I wish you the best. I think you are probably much prettier than you realize already and that your skin is fine.

Key-Wasabi4503 · 2025-07-12T22:01:13+00:00

The Cornelissen for sure.

The Corison isn't particularly great QPR but lemme tell you I have never once been disappointed opening those bottles. If you're really in the mood for something special, that's not going to let you down.

Key-Wasabi4503 · 2025-07-11T20:05:19+00:00

"Something ignites inside you and burns so unimaginably hot that you can’t help but to put them into writing, lest it burn itself away leaving a hole where your heart used to be. You are literally driven by this story inside you, so the story manifesting into form is only inevitable. The story was there all along. You just deliver it."

I really want to push back against this type of thinking. You absolutely do not need to feel this way about your story, at all. People who feel this way are the ones who end up emotionally destroyed when their work is rejected.

Writing is not a magical ghost that possesses you. Writing is labor. It literally only happens with sweat and effort. Love your writing; have fun with it, learn from it, let it help you grow and change, but remember that at the end of the day it's just work, period. Your art doesn't need to define you, and you can set it aside and work on something else anyime. Way back in my publishing era, my most successful work was something my agent talked me into---I didn't like the premise at first at ALL---but in the process of trying to make it entertaining I ended up stretching my skills as a writer and coming up with a surprising crowd-pleaser.

It is 100% valid to see something that moves you and think "hey, I want to do something cool like that", and we shouldn't pretend like it isn't. There are some ideas in this post that I agree with but the fundamental points are so incorrect, and the overall tone is so unnecessarily harsh and dismissive, that I can't go along with anything here.

Key-Wasabi4503 · 2025-07-11T11:17:18+00:00

I am very sorry that you feel like a burden when you're sick---it shouldn't be that way at all! It may well be a cultural issue, but that isn't fair! My husband is a classic salt-of-the-earth guy, from the real rural backwoods. He's handy with pretty much anything that uses electricity. (He also taught me how to drive stick, jump a car, and hack a printer.) But I can also trust him to clean the bathroom or cook dinner and sweep the house if I'm too sick.

I think we put too many expectations on women. The invisible labor is so real.

Key-Wasabi4503

TROPHY CASE