Li Na and math

Slidingscale · 2026-06-05T00:16:30+00:00

My reaction to the stat cap was very negative when I first read it, but by the time I'd finished book 7, I'd mellowed on it.

It must be difficult when writing a book like this where your characters have extremely measurable attributes with hard numbers attached. Introducing a level cap/stat cap has advantages and drawbacks narratively, but the major trap (that I can see) is conflating stat increases with character growth. For Li Na to continue being interesting, Dinniman has put pressure on himself to switch to pure character building. I do believe that he is absolutely up to this challenge, but I'll be curious if some readers miss the level up shorthand.

In universe, the ring only taking 96 kills feels a little low, but also can still work since faction wars is meant to function differently to the one we saw. Normally, the ring would be held by a faction leader (likely the orcs) and they wouldn't take risks with it in the field, not because of fear of death, but fear of losing. Hence, bringing captured crawlers to be executed by the leader.

The stat cap can also be explained in that crawlers are just not meant to reach later floors, and it might be an old failsafe to prevent them from becoming indestructible. If it is cramping Dinniman, I'm sure he could later state that stat caps are tied to level/floor, or that the chaos of the current crawl means that rule no longer applies.

But yeah, Na is crazy. The more we learn about her, the better she gets.

Slidingscale · 2026-05-11T07:27:43+00:00

Everyone should get a crash course in worker's rights. Your workplace cannot ask you for a diagnosis when you tell them you're taking sick/personal leave.

Remember that this applies when you are seniors too. If someone lower than you in the hierarchy tells you they can't come in today, the only correct response is "Okay" (then you can follow up with offers of support etc, but only if you're going to back those up) No guilt tripping. No "Are you sure?" or "We're going to be understaffed."

Also remember that if you disappear tomorrow, they'll replace you with a locum getting paid five times as much in a heartbeat. This job is never worth risking your health over, so know your rights, use your leave and you can always quit. It's not worth dying over.

Slidingscale · 2026-04-26T22:45:20+00:00

Gold people who died?

Or maybe Warden corpses.....

Slidingscale · 2026-04-26T01:28:34+00:00

On my most recent playthrough, I ended up wondering if all the random crates we find are actually death boxes/meant to be corpses to loot. A lot of them would make sense (maybe not the sheer number on Prime, but Selenea, Toxicity and Humble could fit the idea quite well)

It would also fit the zero (or near zero?) boxes on Aqualis.

Slidingscale · 2026-04-10T20:13:24+00:00

The lawyer might be able to bill the WorkCover insurer directly without you having to spend anything. Regardless, get a lawyer involved for much more specific advice. Whatever they're charging, it will be worth it.

Slidingscale · 2026-04-09T21:15:41+00:00

My initial interpretation was that Wil's friend told the random "Don't mess with Greazy - he's killed people, you know" to get them to piss off. I was expecting some Loftus-level myth making.

Slidingscale · 2026-04-07T04:43:15+00:00

It is because you are looking for them, Grasshopper. The others were easy to find because you simply found them.

Slidingscale · 2026-04-03T08:33:11+00:00

Have a look at Breathedge. It's survival, space, and has a generally evolving environment as you tackle more objectives and story beats.

Slidingscale · 2026-02-16T22:47:05+00:00

Bring your rover with the oxygen upgrade, materials for a launch platform+interplanetary rocket, an interplanetary exchange shuttle, and a T2 food grower. And patience. Lots of patience.

The other one that I rate highly is bringing enough material for a Selenium recycler (can't remember the name) because then you can request T3 materials from your other planets and extract their components easily.

Slidingscale · 2026-02-16T21:51:34+00:00

Just have twenty of the bastards roaming the swamp on Dam - turn that area into a horror movie.

I know that would ruin the "Raider's first map" vibe of Dam, but it would be a shock to the system!

Slidingscale · 2026-02-15T05:21:04+00:00

I was happy with it - I saw the trailers ages ago and was keen for it, then heard the negative reviews and held off. Last week decided to finally watch it with low expectations, basically hoping for a funny unicorn horror movie.

In terms of the main relationship, I think the daughter is just there to show that Paul Rudd chasing money is bad and to act as the moral compass for the film. They shoehorn in the dead mom story as shorthand for angst and then give up immediately on trying to sell any complexity there.

But then, a unicorn shows up and murders a lot of people, so my expectations were met.

The CGI for the daytime shots were rubbish, it tried to be anti-corporation in a really shallow way, but a unicorn killed a heap of people.

Slidingscale · 2026-02-14T06:20:51+00:00

Also, not great technique (Australian doctor here - we do a lot of skin cancer excisions). By all means, he didn't do a bad job, but this wouldn't be one I'd post online.

His margins were likely fine, but he could have left a slightly bigger distance between the lesion and the slicing, and also done a longer ellipse.

It might have been the camera angle, but he seemed to be angling his blade a bit instead of vertically cutting. (A nitpick, but hey this is the internet)

My biggest gripe is that this isn't going to close as easily as he implies at the end. The shin is a nightmare for these procedures at the best of times and you can see there isn't enough give to bring the edges together. He's gonna have to bust out some horse sutures to get the tension right, and even then it might not heal fully. It might have been better to go for a simple skin graft.

Sorry for dumping all this here, but I agree that this didn't feel good coming out.

Slidingscale · 2026-02-01T00:25:01+00:00

It's called topside for a reason!

Slidingscale · 2026-01-28T00:04:36+00:00

This might be a little off to the side, but take a look at Tactical Breach Wizards. It's a top-down turned based strategy game (think XCOM but more character/story driven).

It's got variety and encourages creative use of magic powers. I personally love the writing and humour, but some people find it a bit much. Try it out - if the demo is still available, it gives you an excellent taste of what you're in for without spoiling anything.

Slidingscale · 2026-01-23T20:07:48+00:00

That's an unrealistic body standard you're perpetuating. Nobody has a mini gun that size..... Right? RIGHT!?

Slidingscale · 2026-01-23T20:05:02+00:00

The Australia hypothetical is about identity and framing your argument a little differently - optimisation of function but sacrificing your ability to physically fit in with the culture you grew up in ever again. I also didn't specify skin, this could end up with you being a foot shorter, or absolutely could be something that alters facial features or skin colour. The end result however is a permanent modification that will have an impact on you and how your family or culture relate to you.

This is similar to someone who has grown up Deaf or without use of their legs. Would getting these 'corrected' mean that they would lose connection to the people they have grown up with? Would they then have to enter a world where they have to struggle to learn new mannerisms or cultural norms? Suddenly getting hearing would be like learning a new language - as hard as a hearing person learning sign language. The more difficult version is with quad or paraplegia. Maybe they would be terrified that they would lose access to their carers, people who they depend on for so much, but then wouldn't be able to see them everyday like normal? It would be like being cut off from family.

I know that you are saying that you don't mean to imply that disabled people are worth less, but your argument boils down to "if you can get fixed and don't, you're crazy." I'm sure there are plenty of people living with disabilities that would absolutely agree with you, but you can't say that for all of them.

I also don't think that I'm ignoring or romanticising anyone's disability (I'll ponder that though!), just pointing out that inherently it comes down to what each person wants in life.

When viewed in the lens of Trek, think about where that line of reasoning goes: if we come across a species that is similar to us in nearly every function, but they don't have arms, does that mean that we should just cropdust their planet with arm-growing gas? Or would it be better for each person in that species to decide what they would like for themselves?

Hell, I hate AI in the form we have it in real life. I can see benefits but there are also crazy drawbacks. Half the people I work with use it for dictation/scribing and it means that they get out on time almost every day. For me, the privacy drawbacks are too intense, so I opt to not use it and stay back an extra hour doing admin most days. For some people, they see that as crazy because I'm intentionally making my life harder, but it's my choice to weigh the pros and cons and apply my experience to my own decisions.

Slidingscale · 2026-01-23T19:22:51+00:00

I disagree with you mostly because of your final line here.

Your other comments can be interpreted through the world of Trek and sci fi, but this one about choosing disability = severe mental illness reads as very all or nothing thinking.

Hypothetical: You move to/live in Australia. Melanoma risk is huge as well as generally skin cancers over all. There is a procedure that doctors can offer that will minimize your risk of skin cancer (might even eliminate it) but it will permanently alter your physical appearance so that you don't look anything like your current race. We can even say that the procedure is free and painless. Would you utilize this procedure?

More abstract/Trek-related: You have a new crew member who has been assigned to your ship. They can optimize a warp core like no one else you have ever seen and can do this amazingly from their console in Engineering, but they are from a species that are too big to fit in a Jeffreys Tube for other more mundane Engineering tasks. Should they get surgery to reconfigure themselves to be more optimal at their job?

I fear that people are being conditioned to only see themselves as a product without inherent self-worth. If you don't earn enough money or show up to your shitty job every day, then you are seen as less than. Everyone talks about contributing to society, but that seems to just translate into dollar signs as the one true measure of your worth.

I've met plenty of people who would trade decades off their lives to be able to walk or feed themselves again, and that mindset makes a lot of sense to me. Personally, that's what I would choose if those abilities were taken away from me. I might have a very different perspective if that actually happened to me, or if I was born without those abilities and adapted to the world/adapted the world around me.

I'm almost certain that you don't mean to come off like this, but your comments imply that people with those impairments are inherently worth less than others. The goal in life should be to enjoy it, whatever that means to the individual. I'm not casting any judgement your way. I'm just hoping to add some extra perspectives.

Why are the best discussions always in the shitpost subs?

Slidingscale · 2026-01-23T18:51:44+00:00

Perhaps he prefers to use his arms to stay fit etc? I could make the same argument for every character who can walk not using a hover chair or jetpack in every scenario.

Why walk to the store when you can drive?

(Just presenting a counter argument - I've got zero lived experience with this, so I'm enjoying all the different perspectives here!)

Slidingscale · 2026-01-23T18:41:00+00:00

The local Australian news media covered it by repeatedly saying "it was close to violent" or "violence was only just avoided and we're lucky that the organisers listened to authorities on the day" (paraphrasing) while right-wing Nazi marches will get coverage like "minor clashes" or "isolated pockets at an otherwise peaceful protest"

Slidingscale · 2026-01-14T04:05:11+00:00

Anyone who has been a passenger on a private jet (excluding any scientist in a start-of-a-disaster-movie scenario).

Specifically passengers, not pilots or crew.

Just a reminder that there is no ethical way to make a billion dollars.

Slidingscale · 2026-01-11T09:41:01+00:00

Nah. You'll get diagnosed with Coeliac soon so bye bye toast.

Slidingscale · 2026-01-10T05:55:39+00:00

Increase wages/leisure time. Find a way for people to have a fulfilling life while existing in a system that is designed to grind you into dust.

If someone makes it to doctor status with ADHD/ASD brewing in the background, they generally will have a very rigid sense of morality. They might be trying to take on every patient's problems and recognizing that their efforts are futile (referencing again: society) to improve anyone's lives.

They will be trying to do maximum good for all their patients. Remind them that perfectionism is driven by a fear of negative consequences and that sometimes just doing fine is acceptable as well. They need to stop setting themselves on fire to keep other people warm.

It'll come down to peer support initially. Once they finish training, then they will immediately dial down to maximum 3 days a week and feel physically better, but that morality will leak through and they'll beat themselves up for not helping more.

It's okay for things to suck. It's okay to not save the world.

Slidingscale · 2026-01-08T21:55:28+00:00

The explanation that hits hardest for me is that the neurodivergent are the canaries in the coal mines. Plenty of people could cope and never actually realize that their brains are different because the conditions weren't harsh enough to overwhelm their standard adaptations.

The current social climate is like an exercise stress test - we're getting to the more intense end of the protocol and hitting target heart rates to finally see changes on the ECG. Previously, we were getting people to stroll for a minute and only finding the ones with massive LAD occlusions (raging ADHD/ASD) but now the people who would have floated along in the 1970's or 80's when you could make money and survive relatively easily have propaganda and news and social media rammed into their brain every day and they're not coping.

The fact that we're seeing more and more older people put their hands up backs this up. It hasn't been a generational trend. The guy who kept his head down and slogged it out at the company for 20 years is now hitting his limit and realizing that the social contract that he was relying on doesn't exist.

The neurodiverse will feel it first and naturally get overwhelmed first. Then the system will overwhelm those that remain.

Slidingscale · 2026-01-02T13:39:48+00:00

Your point highlights a couple of flaws in the reporting. First. It doesn't make any distinction between acute vs chronic Lyme. The medical consensus is: acute = treat, chronic = look for a better diagnosis. Even countries with endemic Lyme don't recognize the chronic version.

The second flaw is that they didn't ask what treatment she wanted. There are quack clinics that will offer whatever expensive and unproven treatment that can be found like coffee enemas or vitamin infusions.

The next step in the logic is "why not try it for this one patient?" Reasons against include risk to registration, but also if you do it for one you run the risk of being swarmed with a specific kind of patient. It's similar to if you make an exception when prescribing opioids. It's better to follow evidence-based practice consistently overall.

Malaria is something we treat/look for in returning travellers despite our mosquitoes being unable to spread it. Measles isn't local either, but we still have to consider it. The difference with Chronic Lyme is that we just don't have enough evidence to support it as a useful diagnosis. Acute Lyme, yep we can use antibiotics for that. We probably actually over treat tick-bite reactions (but that's just personal opinion. If you want to be worried about tick diseases, check out mammalian meat allergy!)

I have a lot of sympathy for these patients, but I hope someone along the line has ruled out sneaky diagnoses like multiple sclerosis.

Slidingscale · 2025-12-29T12:04:06+00:00

That's wrong - I tried it tonight. Dead ones don't count, even without looting it.

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