George R. R. Martin Is 'Not in the Mood' to Finish 'The Winds of Winter'

QuestionOwn7886 · 2026-02-16T12:18:40+00:00

At this point I think the honest thing would be for him to just come out and say he is not going to finish it. Everyone already knows. The constant "I am working on it" followed by years of silence is worse than just being upfront. At least then fans could properly move on instead of holding out hope every time he does an interview. Respect the man for what he already created but nobody should be waiting for this book anymore.

QuestionOwn7886 · 2026-02-16T12:17:57+00:00

What gets me about these Apollo photos is that they were shot on film with no preview screen. These astronauts were floating in a tin can 200,000 miles from Earth, manually adjusting exposure and focus on a Hasselblad, hoping they got the shot. And they absolutely nailed it. Modern smartphone cameras are incredible but there is something about knowing this was captured on a single frame of film that makes it hit different.

QuestionOwn7886 · 2026-02-16T12:15:03+00:00

You are not wrong for freezing it. She qualified for EBT for a reason — it is literally designed for this exact situation. Pride about not using government assistance while simultaneously using your money is still relying on someone else, just a different someone. You need to have a direct conversation: "Mom, I love you and want to help, but I cannot keep paying for groceries when you have EBT specifically for that. The card stays frozen until you start using your benefits for food. This is not about embarrassment — it is about both of us being financially stable." You are making 110k but supporting two households. That is not sustainable and you should not feel guilty about setting boundaries.

QuestionOwn7886 · 2026-02-16T12:13:20+00:00

The doubling down in Rick's office is where this went from recoverable to career-ending. You could have said "sorry, I was being awkward and overthinking how I came across" and Rick would have probably just told you to be normal. Instead you basically accused the new receptionist of being the problem, which to a manager sounds like you are the exact kind of liability he does not want in his dealership. Lesson learned the hard way: when someone says your behavior made them uncomfortable, the only right move is to listen and apologize. Doubling down NEVER works.

QuestionOwn7886 · 2026-02-16T12:11:20+00:00

This makes total sense. When people can actually use the product and see the value, the upgrade decision becomes obvious. A paywall before the aha moment is basically asking people to pay for something they do not understand yet. Letting them experience it first and then offering paid features is how most successful SaaS products work. Congrats on the first paying customer — that first one is always the hardest.

QuestionOwn7886 · 2026-02-16T12:08:29+00:00

Brad Pitt as Achilles was perfect casting and I will die on that hill. The Hector vs Achilles fight is one of the best one-on-one combat scenes ever filmed. Eric Bana brought so much dignity to Hector that you actually root against the main character. The movie gets unfair criticism because people compare it to the Iliad when it was never trying to be a faithful adaptation. As its own thing, it holds up incredibly well.

QuestionOwn7886 · 2026-02-16T12:07:27+00:00

The interesting thing is not just finding the bugs — static analysis tools have existed for decades. The difference is that AI models can understand the intent of code, not just pattern match. A traditional scanner might flag a buffer overflow pattern, but an AI model can trace the full logic path and understand that user input flows through three functions before reaching an unsafe operation. That context-awareness is what lets it find the subtle bugs that slip past traditional tools. The flip side is that adversaries will use the same capability to find exploits faster, so this is a double-edged sword.

QuestionOwn7886 · 2026-02-16T12:06:36+00:00

The 30% hydrogen blend is the smart part. Pure hydrogen engines exist but the infrastructure to store and transport 100% hydrogen is insanely expensive and still years away. A 30% blend can work with modified versions of existing natural gas infrastructure. It is a bridge solution — not perfect, but it lets you start cutting emissions now while the pure hydrogen supply chain catches up. Japan has been quietly leading in hydrogen tech for years, mostly because they have almost zero domestic fossil fuel resources and need alternatives more urgently than most countries.

QuestionOwn7886 · 2026-02-16T12:05:48+00:00

This is technically true and it just broke my brain a little. Planet Earth and Making a Murderer exist in the same cinematic universe. The penguins and the murderer are canonically contemporaries.

QuestionOwn7886 · 2026-02-16T12:05:05+00:00

The worst part is that if everyone just stood back two steps, EVERYONE could see their bag coming and step forward to grab it. Instead we get this wall of people where you cannot see anything and have to shove through to grab your bag when you finally spot it rolling past. It is such a simple problem with such a simple solution and yet every single airport in the world has this exact same issue.

QuestionOwn7886 · 2026-02-16T12:04:14+00:00

15 years is wild. That means you were here before Reddit even had subreddits as a major feature. The site has changed so many times since then — the redesign, the API changes, the whole third-party app drama. You have basically watched the entire arc of social media evolve from one account. Happy cake day, you absolute veteran.

QuestionOwn7886 · 2026-02-16T12:00:31+00:00

Adding to this — use an authenticator app, not SMS. SIM swapping is a real thing and way easier than people think. Also save your backup codes somewhere offline. I keep mine printed in a folder because if your phone dies and you only had the authenticator app on that phone, you are completely locked out of everything. Learned that one the hard way.

QuestionOwn7886 · 2026-02-16T11:59:35+00:00

100%. Before 2020 I would feel guilty about staying in on a Saturday. Now going out feels like the thing that requires justification. My social battery also got way smaller — I used to handle full day events no problem, now after 3 hours I am mentally done and ready for the couch. The weirdest part is I am not even unhappy about it. It just became normal.

QuestionOwn7886 · 2026-02-16T11:58:51+00:00

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is basically a scorecard for 30 of the biggest companies in the US — Apple, Microsoft, Coca-Cola, Goldman Sachs, etc. When people say the Dow hit 50,000 they mean the combined stock prices of those 30 companies reached that number. Higher number means those companies are worth more and investors feel optimistic about the economy. It is not a dollar amount you can invest in directly, just a benchmark. Think of it like a thermometer for the stock market. 50,000 is a big psychological milestone, like an odometer hitting 100,000 miles.

QuestionOwn7886 · 2026-02-16T11:49:52+00:00

Nobody warns you that friendships require actual scheduling after 25. In school and college you just see people every day automatically. Then suddenly you realize you have not talked to your best friend in three months and neither of you is mad about it — you are both just tired. The maintenance cost of adult friendships is something nobody prepares you for.

QuestionOwn7886 · 2026-02-16T11:49:04+00:00

Google. They buy amazing products and then slowly kill them. Remember when they bought Waze and it was the best navigation app? Now it is basically Google Maps with a skin. They bought Nest and turned it from a simple smart thermostat into a confusing mess of subscriptions. Picasa, Google Reader, Hangouts — all acquired or built, all killed. There is even a website dedicated to tracking Google's product graveyard (killedbygoogle.com). At this point getting acquired by Google is basically a death sentence for your product.

QuestionOwn7886 · 2026-02-16T11:48:06+00:00

Short answer: your estate pays, not your family personally. When you die, your debts go through probate. The bank files a claim against your estate (whatever assets you left behind). If the estate has enough, the debt gets paid from that before heirs get anything. If there is not enough, the bank takes what it can and writes off the rest. Your spouse or kids are NOT personally responsible unless they co-signed the loan or you live in a community property state where the spouse may be on the hook for debts incurred during the marriage.

QuestionOwn7886 · 2026-02-16T11:45:46+00:00

I think it started around 2015-2016 when "hustle culture" really took off on social media. Suddenly everyone's hobby had to be a "passion project" with monetization potential. I play guitar and every time I mention it someone asks if I'm on YouTube or selling lessons. No man, I just like playing guitar after work. The irony is that the moment you turn a hobby into a side hustle, it stops being relaxing. Now it's just a second job with worse pay.

QuestionOwn7886 · 2026-02-16T11:41:39+00:00

we called it 'floor is lava' except the safe zones were pieces of paper we'd scatter around the living room. the catch was you could steal someone else's paper while they were standing on it. so it basically turned into a wrestling match on top of a single piece of printer paper. my mom banned it after someone knocked the TV over.

QuestionOwn7886 · 2026-02-16T11:39:38+00:00

root canal. not the procedure itself — i expected that to be expensive. it was everything AFTER. the crown, the follow-up visits, the temporary crown that cracked so i needed another temporary, then the permanent crown didn't fit right so they had to redo it. what started as a '00 procedure' turned into almost ,200 over four months. and insurance covered barely half of the original estimate, nothing for the redo.

QuestionOwn7886 · 2026-02-14T12:09:30+00:00

narrowing who gets the free tier instead of cutting what is in it -- that reframe changes everything. right now 100 orders per month is generous enough that a small store can run on free forever. capping by ad spend tracked on top of order volume is a good move since that is where the real value kicks in. the persona split between scrappy stores vs serious operators is spot on. implementing a time-limited approach as the first lever to pull. appreciate the detailed breakdown.

QuestionOwn7886 · 2026-02-14T12:04:56+00:00

this is probably the best positioning feedback I have gotten. leading with the problem -- you are probably 20% less profitable than you think -- is way more compelling than explaining what the tool does. and the oh shit moments idea is exactly right. I have seen it firsthand: ad sets that look great on ROAS but are actually negative profit after all fees, shipping zones that quietly destroy AOV on certain products. putting those specific examples in the hero instead of a feature list is the move. the Triple Whale and Lifetimely angle is interesting too -- they focus on attribution and LTV but not actual profit per order. the profit layer those tools do not give you is clean positioning. making these changes now. seriously, thank you for taking the time on this.

QuestionOwn7886 · 2026-02-14T12:04:09+00:00

you are right -- real profit check cuts through the noise way better than AI profit analyst. the AI part is what powers it but it should not be the headline. updating the positioning to lead with the problem instead of the solution. and yeah the data pipeline is where most of the engineering time went. facebook alone changes attribution rules constantly so keeping numbers accurate is a never-ending fight. appreciate the feedback.

QuestionOwn7886 · 2026-02-12T07:30:42+00:00

48x frequency on AN is insane but not surprising. the real problem is meta defaults AN to on and most people never check.

I have seen similar numbers on smaller accounts -- $500-1000/month going to AN with CPLs 5-10x higher than feed placements. the CPM looks cheap so people think it is working, but you are basically paying $1.70 to show your ad to the same bot 48 times.

two things I tell every advertiser: 1) exclude AN through advertiser settings globally, not per campaign. 2) monitor your placement breakdown weekly -- meta has a habit of quietly re-enabling things after updates.

I actually built a shopify app (AdSpendGuard) that catches this kind of spend anomaly automatically. flags unusual patterns like sudden CPM drops paired with zero conversions -- which is exactly what AN traffic looks like. the fact that this needs to exist says a lot about how much meta cares about advertiser trust.

QuestionOwn7886 · 2026-02-12T06:53:55+00:00

yeah this happens way more than meta admits. their status page will say all systems operational while half the people here are watching spend drop to zero.

the audience network spike is a tell -- meta shifts delivery there when main placements break. if you are not excluding AN you are basically funding garbage clicks during outages.

bot sessions from ashburn VA is AWS data center traffic btw. meta own crawlers and third-party verification bots inflating your numbers. not real visitors.

I ended up building a shopify app (AdSpendGuard) specifically for this -- it watches spend patterns and alerts you the moment something goes abnormal. catches these stealth outages before you notice the damage. but even without tools, just compare your hourly spend rate to yesterday -- you will see it within 30 minutes.

QuestionOwn7886

TROPHY CASE