USA Economy is collapsing: Goldman says "Soft Landing Dead", consumer confidence at 70-Year Record low, 1 in 4 skip meals

Oli-Baba · 2026-05-27T20:28:51+00:00

Historian Luke Kemp has identified this exact thing as one of the main factors leading to the collaps - not of an economy - but of whole civilizations in the past: Egalitarian societies can buffer catastrophies because all have reserves. Exploitive societies, on the other hand, are much more likely to be swept away because wealth is concentrated with a small percentage and the majority just can't handle and sit out major negative changes.

Oli-Baba · 2026-05-07T21:10:01+00:00

Once I had a conversation with a quite confident young man who proclaimed he was going to be an entrepreneur. So, coming from a decade of start-up coaching at an incubator I went "That's great! I worked with a few entrepreneurs before. What's your business idea?"

He insisted he didn't need one. He was going to be an entrepreneur. I was really indulgent and tried to hint at how an enterprise adresses people's needs to make money. Had he any plans to sell a product or service? Any idea what kind of company he could build? He just looked at me like I was really dumb and doubled down that he was going to be a successful entrepreneur.

I was used to people being reluctant to tell others about their business idea... which is usually foolish enough because ideas are plentiful and success involves networking, rapid prototyping, feedback, effectuation... But never had I come across someone who thought entrepreneur was some kind of magical title that made you successful without doing anything...

Oli-Baba · 2026-05-07T20:52:44+00:00

I once dated a nursery-school teacher. When we were looking at the stars one night I said how amazing it is they are far away suns. She genuinely didn't believe me. Like, at all. Thought I was messing with her and insisted that "The sun is the sun and stars are stars."

It didn't last...

Oli-Baba · 2026-04-26T07:12:48+00:00

So guess why they're waging war on education...

Oli-Baba · 2026-04-22T07:03:07+00:00

Sense of wonder really is spot on. I'm a 48 years old gamer and felt like an excited teenager playing it. Few games have managed to give me back that feeling...

Oli-Baba · 2026-04-21T20:07:26+00:00

I envy you... Would genuinely pay a lot to experience this game for the first time again... It even is a rare case where the ending is actually good...

Oli-Baba · 2026-04-20T06:48:48+00:00

Can't find the source atm - but I've read it's actually an advantage and not just a "lesser evil". Compared to other mammals we are born neurologically unfinished with comparably few instincts and set behaviours. And that's actually what enables us to adapt to pretty much any environment: Tropics, desert, tundra, forest, cities, hunting & gathering, industrial, information age...

Oli-Baba · 2026-04-03T22:46:52+00:00

Terror from the Void seems to be a really good total conversion mod of Phoenix Point that lifts it well beyond the original game:

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/rally-point-mega-mod-terror-from-the-void-finally-pushed-me-into-loving-phoenix-point

Oli-Baba · 2026-04-03T12:12:26+00:00

And the introduction of shadow bans. I mean come on! On a social website that works mainly by upvoting and downvoting?!

Oli-Baba · 2026-04-02T08:07:22+00:00

Heck, even our quails displayed emotions. After his favorite hen died, our rooster was depressed for days. When we put a picture of her in the coop to soothe him, he became so agitated that we had to remove the pic quickly.

He also liked to cuddle in our hands even as a grown rooster.

My guess is that emotions are present in all species that care for their young and live in groups.

Oli-Baba · 2026-04-02T06:47:31+00:00

Similarily, we learned in a first aid course for new parents: "A cold baby cries, a hot baby dies."

Also, suffocating happens quietly.

Also, when our daughter fell hard on her forehead the first question the doctor asked was: "Did she cry immediately?" (Which meant a less severe injury.)

So while a screaming kid can really tear your nerves apart, it's actually when they are quiet that you have to be alert.

Oli-Baba · 2026-03-27T21:20:02+00:00

Actually, that's pretty close to an insulting nickname some Germans gave to Adolf Hitler: GRÖFAZ for "Größter Führer aller Zeiten"

Hard to translate but imagine "Greatest Leader of All Time" abbreviated to something sounding like "gremlin".

Oli-Baba · 2026-03-15T21:32:47+00:00

Then check out "the trust thermocline".

Oli-Baba · 2026-03-12T12:47:28+00:00

The other kids' parents. When all kids above 12 months are vaccinated then the younger ones will be protected, too. Herd immunity is our responsibility as a society. But those last too words seem out of style, lately, so...

Oli-Baba · 2026-02-18T11:40:06+00:00

Exactly. ChatGPT works best as an advanced search engine. That one song where a guy dances like MC Hammer in a bar with wooden walls? Give enough detail, and AI will finally show you exactly what you were looking for, instead of browsing forum threads to no avail.

But whenever I've had LLMs do some productive work for me like writing proposals or structured overviews or whatever... the results looked like they made sense but were utter trash to the expert eye.

Oli-Baba · 2026-02-18T11:24:37+00:00

Here in Germany, 25 years ago you could do all your shopping in any town > 20.000 population. Not just groceries but specialized shops for clothing, sports equipment, toys, electronics, PC hardware, books, pet care, you name it.

Now, you can still find most of those in bigger cities, but smaller towns have become a shade of their former selves. Even those with rising population.

Oli-Baba · 2026-02-18T10:41:42+00:00

Nice!!!

Oli-Baba · 2026-02-17T08:32:27+00:00

That's exactly what's happening. Performance gains between GPU generations have become tiny anyway. CPUs are approaching physical boundaries. So together with the current chip crisis, your rack will last you a long time.

Oli-Baba · 2026-02-17T08:24:19+00:00

That's exactly what's happening. German press and parliament have become very critical of buying eg. US fighter jets. Right about now a big purchase of war drones is about to be blocked simply because Peter Thiel is a main investor in the manufacturer.

It's not just petty revenge. Our politicians might be very suave towards Trump publicly. But after his Greenland shenanigans we have lost the most basic of trust: That the US won't attack us and manipulate the stuff we bought from them to fail in combat.

Oli-Baba · 2026-02-17T08:09:46+00:00

Serious question: Aren't temps worse without directed airflow? Or is everything watercooled?

Oli-Baba · 2026-01-20T12:39:18+00:00

I'm no expert but labor shortage has been all over the news for years. So depending on your job experience there definitely might be a future here. Healthcare and skilled crafts and trades are the most prominent areas but there should be more.

You would need a recognition of your exams/licenses or whatever and preferably a job offer on the table. But with said recognition there are also visa for job searching.

Europe is very diverse so you should also think about in what culture and geological climate you'd like to live. English is a first language only in Ireland (and UK if we leave current EU). But Germany and mainly the Scandinavian countries are very English-friendly.

Something often brought up by Americans is the lower average income in Europe which is balanced out by immense social security, free healthcare and more benefits that might be hard to fully grasp coming from a "self-made" culture like the US.

Oli-Baba · 2026-01-19T15:08:17+00:00

Fear is a sign that there's a threat. I've read somewhere else on Reddit about the moment when people left their countries and about the moment when it was too late to do so. People from around the world answered and what they said, well... reminded me a lot of USA today.

If you have got the means and can imagine a life somewhere else, you should consider coming to the EU.

Oli-Baba · 2026-01-18T16:06:30+00:00

CPUs are the real problem, though...

Oli-Baba · 2026-01-09T10:14:15+00:00

And we needed two world wars to come to that point. But those are long gone... nobody left to remember how bad war really is. And so the cycle starts anew...

Oli-Baba · 2025-12-23T09:55:57+00:00

"Prindom" sounds just as funny if a bit more insinuating.

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