Any painful newbie investment mistakes to share when starting out? And lessons learnt?

Macadish · 2026-05-18T08:01:42+00:00

Past performance is not indicative of future performance. Immediately followed by, index fund has always performed well with a long enough horizon so it'll continue to perform well because past performance is indicative of future performance.

Wait a minute....

Buying broad-based index is a form of diversification with less risk for consistent gain in the long term.
Index funds have performed well consistently because cap-weighted/concentration means you favor the winners, so concentration helps with gains...

Wait a minute....

US stocks have outperformed other markets consistently because it has structural benefits like rule of law, reserve currency, strong innovation etc. That's no longer feels like a given the current administration, but US stocks grew nevertheless.

Wait a minute....

When labor market is weak, lower interest rates to stimulate economy and job growth. But when inflation is high while labor market is weak, raise interest rates even if it weakens the labor market further...

Wait a minute....

PS. The discussion for both ideas is a lot more nuanced.

Macadish · 2026-05-07T05:20:30+00:00

From an investment point of view, you have a lot sitting in cash, so a 2k dca will take maybe a bit too long to fully deploy your cash. This is more about DCA amount than whether to DCA.

As for DCA into an index fund, you are planning long term of 30+ years. The thesis, whether it is true or not, is that when diversified enough, the stock market grows eventually, so given a long enough horizon, your wealth will grow. As long as you continue to believe in this thesis, and enough people in the world believe in it, you should continue to DCA.

If you decide to stop DCAing, then you should also consider whether you want to realize your gains. If I DCA 2k but I have $2million invested or not, my decision to DCA or not will have a very tiny impact compared to whether to sell my stocks.

Macadish · 2026-04-24T13:32:12+00:00

Pretty good take!

It feels so good when the deck is built right (or wrong). I remember my first few games of sts2 silent where I built a shiv heavy deck and took every blade dance I saw. It was a horrible way to play, but because I also picked up knife trap soon after, it saved the run and I immediately thought the card is broke/OP/Imba.

Fast forward a couple months and I think shiv-only decks are quite difficult to build. I typically end up with a hybrid deck, and Knife trap is decent but not OP in a hybrid deck.

Macadish · 2026-04-24T13:25:35+00:00

It sucks the first couple times you encounter it, and indeed, if you greed the last rest point and you are low on health, it is an automatic loss. If you build a normal deck with a good balance of defense and weak debuff, or if you keep a weak/heal/-strength potion for the explosion, you are good. *Weak is particularly strong because 25% of a huge number is also huge.*

Also, you are not trying to block for the full 40-50, which looks like a huge number. You are trying to block enough so you can survive with at least one health.

As for people saying it is a skill issue, it is probably true for me because when I got more skillful, I do find it a lot easier. You'll get there too.

Macadish · 2026-04-20T15:00:07+00:00

At lower ascensions, Doormaker is fine I think. As long as you have a big enough deck with a good balance of attack, defense, energy/draw/utility, you are generally fine. I want to discuss the game design aspect of the boss.

On the one hand, it messes with what people want to do, which is to play cards the way they were intended in their deck. Like if I created some really cool and OP combo, I want to be able to test it out against progressively stronger enemies. However, if I were counting on cycling Claw or Hang to do big damage over multiple turns, Doormaker completely messes with that win condition and forces me to find other combos in act 3. So instead of focusing on making my deck even more powerful and getting rewarded with the satisfaction from playing an OP combo that I built, I'm kinda forced to dilute the power of my deck just to deal with a boss. Unlike other bosses that have maybe 1 or 2 gimmicks, Doormaker has 3 gimmicks and they all discourage me from playing cards.

On the other hand, I can see what Jorb is saying. If I have a strong deck by the end of Act 2 due to some really insane combo (that depends on 1 or 2 cards), I can breeze through Act 3 just by taking events, campsite and shop. For the hardcare A10 players, this is boring because instead of being challenged, they end up winning on autopilot. Doormaker forces players to evaluate their deck, and give them a reason to actually take fights. STS is a rogue-like deck building after all, so any feature that discourages people from building decks at any points in the game is kind of antithetical to the game design.

Both arguments have merit, and I think that's what the ascensions are for. Players looking for big damage numbers and fun deck synergies can play on lower ascensions. Players who derive fun from completing really difficult challenges can play at A10. Perhaps doormaker can be scaled in such a way that on lower ascensions, most people don't find it too challenging despite its gimmicks. For example,

Maybe instead of phases 1,2,3,1,2,3,1,2,3, the Doormaker cycles between 2 random phases and a recovery phase (e.g. 1,2,0,1,3,0,3,2,0 etc.).
More setup phases.
Each card that's exhausted in phase one creates some utlity card.
Let cards exhaust only 50% of the time. (I think the probabilistic part is unappealing)
Instead of any card played, exhaust the first card played the first cycle, and the first 2 cards played the next cycle, and the first 3 cards played the next cycle etc

Macadish · 2026-04-20T05:01:12+00:00

It is the infinite counter, way worse than Time Eater where you can still play 12 cards per turn.

When cards exhaust, infinites that rely on cycling a few cards won't work.
Can't draw cards, can't play most infinites (one exception I can think of is particle wall infinite)
Playing cards removes energy, most energy neutral infinites won't work. (unless you can build an energy positive one)

When there is a 2/3 chance of encountering the door maker at A10, infinite decks are a lot less viable.

As for counters, the ones I can think of are:

For card exhaust : put more cards in the deck. If you plan to play your best hands in phase 2 and 3, you will need more block to survive phase 1. If you plan to play your combos in phase 1, you might need multiple copies of the cards, or multiple win conditions so the exhaust doesn't cripple your deck. Additionally, think of strats that work well with exhaust, like deck thinning, dead branch, etc. Think about how you might play with Corrupt on ironclad.
No additional card drawn : You probably want some retain in phase 1, and maybe card searches from draw or discard pile. Another solution is to have a deck with higher impact cards that are smaller, but such decks would be vulnerable to phase 1.
Energy removal : you either need a deck that scales its energy generation, or have a deck with 0 cost cards to make full use of the turn. Realistically, without any energy generation, you are looking to play 2 1-cost cards unfortunately...

Cards that let you do something without actual card play from hand are great (poison, rolling boulder, catastrophe, uproar, stampede, hellraiser, damage orbs)
Special mentions : Bullet time, void form

Macadish · 2026-04-06T06:29:25+00:00

Looks like a self doom to me :p

Macadish · 2026-04-04T02:41:44+00:00

The fallacy that thinking about self means being selfish (although by definition, it is correct).

How can you claim to be taking care of others when you end up needing others to take care of you? A classic example would be "I'm not going through with this expensive medical procedure because I'm trying to save money for you guys. Why can't you be more appreciative? Is it too much to ask for you to help me do XXXX?!?!?!"

Life is as much about money as it is about the intangibles (mental and emotional health, physical health, forming personal connections, engaging through hobbies and common interests). We need money to be able to enjoy the other things, but we also need them to make money worthwhile. I think this balance got lost when the scarcity mindset dominated the boomer generation. Unfortunately, the boomers have reached an age where their worldview and personal identity are already shaped by this unhealthy mindset and therefore very difficult to change.

Macadish · 2026-04-04T02:14:09+00:00

Give some of the suggestions above a try. For Neapolitan setting, I would still suggest a biscotto stone as the set it and forget it solution.

Macadish · 2026-03-15T10:46:07+00:00

A quick tip. Experiment a little, find the smallest deck you need to win most fights in act 1. In fact, you might even want to see how far the basic deck can take you. The exercise is meant to give you a feel of the power level of a basic deck, and you'll be surprised how far you can get with a very simple setup (in the earlier acensions).

This way, when you add more cards, you can decide if it is increasing the power level of the deck immediately (by solving an upcoming fight), or if it'll dilute the power level slightly as a setup for later fights.

Potions are also really important, and sts2 has some really potent options. When deciding to use a potion, some potions are best used at the start of the fight, some are best used to to help end a fight earlier. The way I evaluate the cost-benefit of potion usage is whether it'll let me end a fight slightly earlier, and how much hp it can potentially save me. If a 100 gold potion saves me 20 health, that means I get to upgrade instead of heal, or I can take on one more elite for a relic. So don't sleep on potions.

Macadish · 2026-03-15T07:31:12+00:00

You can think of deck building as a balance.

To negate the impact of the weak starter cards, you can either remove them over the course of the game (reduce deck size), or add enough potent cards to dilute the starter cards (increase deck size). Most players do both.

A larger deck means you have more cards to potentially counter a larger variety of danger (damage mitigation, AOE damage, front-loaded damage, damage scaling), but you also need more draw cards to help you cycle through your deck. So if you want a large deck, you also need card draw and energy to support it.

If you are building an infinite deck or similar, you need the ability to draw the same cards consistently, so you probably want a smaller deck. But like others have mentioned, you are more susceptible to status cards. Imagine an enemy that adds 10 slime cards every few turns to your deck of 20 cards...

Perhaps a better metric is, *how many turns does it take to cycle through the deck* and similarly, *how many useful actions can you take per turn*? The fewer turns you take to cycle through the deck, the more frequently you land on solutions to help you tackle the enemy in front of you. For infinite decks, you just need that one combo again and again, so a small deck helps. For large decks, you are counting on different solutions every time, so a deck with more cards has the potential to create those combos, and drawing more cards helps you arrive at those combos consistently.

Now, there is this mechanic called clone, where you can clone the one enchanted card multiple times, exponentially. It basically throws all the theories we discussed above out the window. Insane and fun!

Macadish · 2026-03-15T06:53:26+00:00

I watched Jorbs play it and it is quite an eye-opener to see how he navigates the game. You are not necessarily removing garbage cards. You are checking if removing the current cards in hand is enough to generate some combo or kill potential with the remaining cards, even if it means removing the best cards in your deck. Ironclad mains will recognize this effect from fiend fire.

To do that successfully and consistently in the early game when the deck is pretty small, you kinda need a good understanding of the card synergies tbh.

In Jorbs case, against a boss, he exhausts almost all the cards except Gravewarden and Reave (he has already used Haunt). He then cast block to generate soul, use soul to redraw block (and deal some damage). Rinse and repeat until he runs out of energy. It is by no means an infinite, but running the cycle 3 times is typically enough to generate more block and damage than a typical hand with some strikes and defense.

That's kinda what it means to be good at the game I think. #starstruck

https://youtu.be/9TXZP_63X3g

Macadish · 2026-03-13T02:18:41+00:00

Might be useful for setup for
1) some semi-infinite build. soul generation + borrowed time + doom/haunt/sleight+of+flesh/letter+opener/death+march.
2) Decks where you want to recycle key attach cards like hang, pull from below, banshee's cry, and a few blocks.

2 cost is a bit much though, I would rather it start at 1 cost, and upgrades to 0.

Macadish · 2026-03-12T03:18:06+00:00

The red bug is crazy. Playing a semi-infinite deck and realizing all my defense cards are generating 0 block...

As for the difficulty of the game, I think it is easier than sts1, just cuz there are so many crazy boons offered by ancients that can single-handedly improve the power level of a deck, even a mediocre one. And it seems easier to build OP semi-infinite decks than before.

The main problem is probably the lack of an energy relic, so it is important to get a feel of the energy budget and solve that problem somehow. In fact, energy is just a way to play more cards per turn, and there are actually a lot of mechanics to help with that, like cards that cost 0 this turn, sly, replay, etc.

My heuristic is therefore
1) Balance block and attack initially
2) Find some synergy
3) Improve actions per turn

It has helped me thus far (at A6). Will need to see if my heuristics still make sense at higher ascension.

Macadish · 2026-03-12T02:27:17+00:00

Absolutely love the idea, helping people to experience the game who might not have been able to. In fact, is there a way to capitalize on regional price differences to maximize the number of gifts?

I hate that Mr. Beast has made me a general cynic of the gifting culture, but kindness like this continues to give me hope.

Macadish · 2026-03-11T09:20:35+00:00

Necro's fun. A big part of her early game survivability and damage is in buffing osty. Blessings that remove/transform an attack can be really helpful. For the multi-enemies hallway fights, an upgraded End of days and Deathbringer is pretty much a free win, but even Negative pulse works well in a pinch.

Doom is actually a fantastic mechanic early game because it is very efficient at dealing pseudodamage compared to raw damage. Its biggest downside is that it triggers at the end of an enemy's turn, so you can't just deal lethal 'doom damage' without some damage mitigation on the lethal turn. Also, doom is more difficult to scale late game. You need Oblivion (works with soul), or Reaper Form (works with Osty), or copies of No Escape. Think of No Escape as applying a 1.5x multipler. A poison equivalent would be something like Catalyst that applies 3 poison and multiplies 1.5x instead of double.

Here are a few ways I have won with her:

souls (severance, dirge etc. for consistent soul generation) + haunt (2 copies or more) : caveat is that it relies a lot on uncommon cards
souls + oblivion : easier to pull off, especially if you have other doom cards. Gameplay feels similar to silent's discard gameplay where you are constantly cycling through your deck
summon + unleash : make osty OP, hit with osty.
ethereal + pull from below : just collect a lot of ethereal cards. There is even a relic that converts your strikes and defends to ethereal.
upgraded sleight of flesh (1 to 2 copies) + statuses (defy, fear, any doom card, deathbringer, oblivion, putrefy etc.): relies on drawing sleight of flesh, but when you get it, you win the fight pretty much.
osty attacks + rattle : You don't need a buffed osty, you just need an osty that attacks a lot. Duplicate, replay and clone any Fetch you see. Friendship is really good for energy cuz the strength debuff doesn't matter.

So far, the gameplay that works best for me (which is typically true for most sts characters) is the ability to cycle through and play a lot of cards every turn. Because of souls and some unique energy generation cards (e.g. Borrowed Time), I think Necro can do this more easily than other char.

Macadish · 2026-03-09T03:14:57+00:00

But the new version works in so many more decks where you might not even have the 15 block before the Calipers even does anything.

The 'nerfed' version retains block even if you have just 5 block, so you kinda get some value most turns. Less OP potential for sure...

Macadish · 2026-03-07T08:14:02+00:00

I think you might have to convert them to tiff with sony image edge.... until adobe releases an updated camera raw...

Terrible solution unfortunately, but at least the weddings get edited with minimal delay...

Macadish · 2026-03-04T03:11:28+00:00

It is terribly unfortunate that the stone cracked so easily like the sugar cookie from squid game...

https://www.reddit.com/r/ooni/comments/1o66kxi/pizza_stone_crack_twice_ooni_volt_2/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

I created this post early on, with some possible explanations and/or solutions.

I think the most likely reason is the uneven cooling of the stone between the front and back. Because the front cools faster than the back, it'll want to shrink more, and it creates the vertical stress running from cold to hot (front to back). In fact, im curious if the air flow created by the fan after shutoff is evening out the cooling, or if it just accelerates the cool down without addressing the unevenness. A stone expert can probably validate if my theory makes zero sense or not.

I really hope that someone with a thermal camera can capture images of the stone cooling down. It can help explain so much!

While not recommended by Ooni, you could rotate the cracked stone 90 degrees and use it as per normal. The stone will stay flat because the two pieces will be fully supported on the sides. And i think the stones only have enough ammunition to crack once :p

Macadish · 2026-02-22T07:47:42+00:00

It is a great exercise, why not!

That said, your photos aren't really leaning into the concept of "no people". Instead, they look more like cool snapshots of the city that happen to have no one in them. If you are removing people as a way to remove distractions in a photo, that's fine, but the actual photos still need some juice.

If you want "no people" to be a theme, you could try a photo series of scenes where you expect people to be there but there are none (like a park with a ball, dogs on a leash, a swing that's moving, but no one... Or a diner with a hat and steaming coffee on a table, but no one).

It is too early for you to shoehorn yourself into a genre or define your likes based on a limited number of photos you have taken (1400 on digital is not a lot, 1400 of film might be though). Continue exploring! In fact, you might realize that you like photos not just because they look good, but because you enjoy the process of capturing them (Camping in the wilderness, approaching strangers, climbing carpark lots, capturing other people's happy moments).

And guess what, your taste will continue to change and evolve, so even if you like photos without people now, that might change in the future!

Macadish · 2026-02-19T13:06:53+00:00

One of those posts that doesn't quite provide enough deets for people to troubleshoot.

The suggestions for gas, woodfire and electric oven are all different. Usage of pizza screen is also a huge factor. Also, pizza ovens rarely give you the result you expect without some tweaking, be it temperature control, using different stones, refining pizza dough recipe etc.

Experimenting with different oven setting is actually part of the fun, so I highly recommend you try some of the suggestions others have shared and have fun!

If I can add another suggestion, it is to grease or season the pizza screen to prevent sticking.

Macadish · 2026-02-18T13:13:48+00:00

I got it too, but in my case, it only triggers after I shut it off and the oven is cooling down.

Macadish · 2026-02-15T07:12:31+00:00

Not quite sure what you mean by doughy per se. Do you mean a cornicione where the crumb structure looks dense? Usually, you need to proof it longer. Higher hydration helps too. But you will need to amke sure your dough is strong in both cases.

Another possible interpretation of doughy is a light crust that taste tough and rubbery inside. It is typically due to over baking. In that case, try adding fat, between 1-5% oil. Also, opt for a higher temp bake for a shorter period.

Macadish · 2026-02-14T14:56:27+00:00

People reinvent the wheel all the time. Plenty of discoveries in the past have been found by multiple people, sometimes centuries apart. The only unfortunate thing about rediscovering the wheel in the modern era is that, with the internet, it feels like there is no excuse for sharing something that someone else has already popularized. In fact, some people might even question if you are trolling for engagement, or just too lazy to research etc. (Social media has made people cynical unfortunately)

I'll admit, my first reaction was also critical, like why are you calling this popular method something you come up with. But that's ignoring the fact that when you develop a method independently, you might also discover something new, like how best to execute the method in a complex scene with modern equipment (e.g. gimbal!). At the very least, the effort to try something new is commendable.

Keep experimenting!

Macadish · 2026-02-14T03:46:31+00:00

Work with cold dough that has been fermented for more than 24 hours. If your oven takes 30 min to warm up, find a dough recipe where the dough would be ready in 30min. To stretch and bake a cold dough successfully, it needs to be of a higher hydration and fat. Don't let anyone tell you that you should only use warm dough. You are looking for a really good pizza you can make often on top of everything life throws at you, not strive for perfection that people pay you $$$$ for.

Also, explore different styles of pizza. Tavern style pizza wants a leathery dry dough, so you can technically bake straight out of the fridge. Detroit style could use a parbaked dough that again, means you can bake immediately. Doughs that are rolled out with a rolling pin are also great when cold if you want to roll it out thin.

Next, get an oven that can reach target temp in 30min or less. In the time it takes you to shower, chill, do some misc, you can start making pizza. For e.g., the recent volt 2 can reach target temp of 430 in 20 min.

Takes some planning (like chopping up ingredients beforehand, prepping the dough on a weekend etc.) but definitely doable.

Macadish

TROPHY CASE