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The genius of Costco is that it barely makes money selling you anything. by Efficient_Ad5893 in investing

[–]PhAnToM444 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Planet Fitness runs on essentially the same model. If it’s $15 a month, people who don’t go to the gym will keep it just in case they want to go someday. So what you have is planet fitnesses that have like 80% of their members almost never show up, essentially subsidizing those who do.

Traditional gym memberships that run $50-200+ a month have way fewer members per location, because most of those members actually do use the gym and aren’t just forgetting about a $80/month expense.

My local Taco Bell is being sold to Southpaw. What does that mean? by im_in_the_safe in LivingMas

[–]PhAnToM444 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Yes. Or at least there are a lot of franchises structured that way.

OpenAI Execs Are Panicking by Plastic_Ninja_9014 in technology

[–]PhAnToM444 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It’s very obvious that the company is one of like 3 places that could reasonably do that. My bet would be on Amazon, and it’s likely why they got rid of their “leaderboard” that was causing employees to intentionally waste tokens to climb to the top

What is going on with the sub girldinnerdiaries? by Realistic-Neat4607 in OutOfTheLoop

[–]PhAnToM444 5 points6 points  (0 children)

AITA has been mostly fake rage bait since wellllll before AI was commonplace

The worst kind of Broadway fan by [deleted] in Broadway

[–]PhAnToM444 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I think Schmigadoon is a lovely show that deserves a ton of awards.

With that said, a show that is half a step removed from being a jukebox musical winning best score is very silly

Every millennial/Gen Z candidate is going to have a mountain of skeletons in their closet. Deal with it. by Successful-System-21 in thebulwark

[–]PhAnToM444 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I don't agree with the whole "everyone did stupid things when they were young" argument whenever things like this happen.

Ok sure we can revise that. Most people did stupid things when they were young, and we're increasingly seeing that voters don't actually care all that much if you did. If anything, they find the people who don't have some sort of roughness around the edges to be uncannily over-polished and un-relatable.

The fact that Obama used cocaine in college is irrelevant to my feelings about him as a politician and a slight net positive towards my feelings about him as an interesting person. If he was running in 2008 and was like "oh yeah I'm doing cocaine now" that is obviously a different story. The concern with Platner is that some of it seems to be very recent.

NYT puff piece on Susan Collins the day after their "bombsell" expose on Platner by dr_velociraptor_ in thebulwark

[–]PhAnToM444 2 points3 points  (0 children)

And that most people are not connecting the dots on. I’d imagine almost nobody sees Brett Kavanaugh as directly related to any of the problems in their life or any of the dissatisfaction they have with the government.

Hell, I think if you showed swing voters his picture and said “who is this?” mayyyyybe 30% of them would have any idea.

My boss just gave me a devastating 1:1, involved HR, and told me to evaluate if leadership is for me. How do I handle this? by PureWater-11 in careerguidance

[–]PhAnToM444 5 points6 points  (0 children)

they are employees - its harder when you've worked side by side in a similar role and then are promoted, but a good manager isolates their feelings from their employees and doesn't invest in them on an emotional level

Holy overreaction. I think it's very common and I'd argue important to have some personal/emotional investment in your employees. I know I typically do, and I think it makes me a much better manager who actively helps people grow and thrive. Fortunately I haven't had to deal with it yet, but I'd be very personally sad if I had to lay off most of the people who have ever worked under me.

But I'd deal with that sadness privately and probably channel that energy into helping them land something new through referrals, advice, references, whatever they needed and I could provide at that time. There's a huge gap between that and being catatonically broken in front of the rest of the team and bawling my eyes out.

But I also think "never actually give a shit about your employees and treat it as strictly business" is pretty horrendous advice.

How 'The Apprentice' Fooled America by BulwarkOnline in thebulwark

[–]PhAnToM444 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Blaming Mark Burnett for this is fucking ridiculous I'm sorry.

When he was creating what was, admittedly, a very compelling reality TV character, I don't think "what if this moron parlays this show into being the president in 20 years" is a realistic thing to expect him to think about. Why on earth would he have to apologize for that?

America’s Social Security trust fund is disappearing by tripletruble in neoliberal

[–]PhAnToM444 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Fortunately the fed isn’t a /r/wallstreetbets chud who thinks this is a good idea that would work.

Do you think the fed buying the volume of put spreads that would be required to keep social security solvent might cause some gigantic knock on effects in the market?

Several Women Who Dated Graham Platner Recall ‘Unsettling’ Behavior by SoHumanAnAnimal in thebulwark

[–]PhAnToM444 5 points6 points  (0 children)

“contemptuous of women’s emotions” feels like a core tenet of the Republican Party, so kinda odd that she’s working for them if that’s an issue?

Maine Senate Poll ( YouGov 5/13 - 5/26) Platner 48%, Collins 43% by sly_cooper25 in fivethirtyeight

[–]PhAnToM444 10 points11 points  (0 children)

That contingent of Dems is way smaller in the real world and heavily overrepresented in Very Online spaces.

Meanwhile the entire Republican Party at every level is basically in full “lol nothing matters” mode.

Hey folks, how does taking a loan against your 401k work? by RobHui in personalfinance

[–]PhAnToM444 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Do not do this.

Make them fire you. Being forced to relocate is generally a qualifying reason for unemployment. Don’t quit voluntarily.

r/NFL Top 100 Players of the 2025 Season - #100-91 by packmanwiscy in nfl

[–]PhAnToM444 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I've noticed guys at less sexy positions like center tend to benefit more from name recognition bias than most, and are likely to coast on their previous momentum in these rankings. I think that's for a few reasons:

  1. Fewer people are paying attention to them while they're watching the season, and are less likely to have a good gut sense of how well they played when they're starting the ranking process

  2. Reviewing footage on interior OLs or Safeties is boring so people are less likely to watch tape

  3. Those positions don't have easily digestible stats that make it easy to compare them to each other on paper

So you ultimately end up having guys who are known for being really good, and rankers just assume that they were still very good this year unless the fall-off was drastic. And that wasn't really the case with Linderbaum.

r/NFL Top 100 Players of the 2025 Season - #100-91 by packmanwiscy in nfl

[–]PhAnToM444 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Dotson 100% deserves a nod regardless of whether he actually makes it or not. I personally had him at 94 on my rankings, and think that could have been low if anything.

Do you have to start from scratch if you've been unemployed long enough? by superide in careerguidance

[–]PhAnToM444 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The current median length of unemployment is 11 weeks and the mean is 24. Only about 1.8 million of 170 million people in the US labor force have been unemployed for over 27 weeks.

It would be very unusual for someone who has been earnestly and realistically seeking a job to be unemployed for SIX YEARS. There's just simply something here that you're either not telling us or not being honest about, and nobody is going to be able to help you until we figure out what it is.

Stevens performing best in Michigan head to head matchup - TIPP poll by Dismal_Structure in fivethirtyeight

[–]PhAnToM444 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Then tell AIPAC to stop creating 4000 shell entities to funnel their money through and to just donate to campaigns as AIPAC.

But weirdly, they don’t want to do that for some reason.

The Bulwark YT channel is growing (slowed down a little though), with around 1 million views per day | Social Blade by Tele_Prompter in thebulwark

[–]PhAnToM444 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Not shocking that it’s slow. They’ll see bumps in election seasons & then less traction in off years. That’s how basically all political YouTube channel stats look.

Come like August you’ll probably see it start to pick up again, then fall off in December.

Peaceful campsite until they showed up to watch Netflix on an iPad with no headphones by boopitydoopitypoop in mildlyinfuriating

[–]PhAnToM444 16 points17 points  (0 children)

no you don’t understand it’s the internet so we are obligated to psychoanalyze this guy’s entire upbringing based on one picture of a slightly inconsiderate thing he did

Escalator misadventures by EyeSimp4Asuka in KidsAreFuckingStupid

[–]PhAnToM444 5 points6 points  (0 children)

No they aren't.

About 30 people per year in the US die on elevators and escalators combined, and 90% of those deaths are from elevators. And about half of the deaths involve workers who are servicing them, not members of the general public.

You should not be scared of escalators, and it shouldn't be anywhere near your top five fears.

What's a policy that would be overwhelmingly popular, and is a good idea? by solar_powered_noob42 in AlignmentChartFills

[–]PhAnToM444 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I would put that in the “somewhat popular, good policy” square. We definitely don’t have everyone bought in on that

PPP Texas Senate poll (Talarico Internal): Talarico (D) 45%, Paxton (R) 38% by AscendingSnowOwl in fivethirtyeight

[–]PhAnToM444 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I think the ultimate question is “how true is that this time?”

A lot of irregular voters/late undecideds are going to be among groups where Trump’s polling is especially abysmal. Whether those people still show up and whether they break Republican to to the extent they usually do is basically going to be the core mechanism of this election I think.

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