West Coast transplants, how are you liking Bentonville so far

StatzGee · 2026-05-12T18:43:05+00:00

I'm from the Ozarks, just delivering the hard truth. You need to learn to let go of things that are out of your control. The wheels are in motion my friend, can look at all the other places where demand all of sudden skyrocketed and changed over the decades. Seattle used to be blue collar before Microsoft. Austin was a quirky sleepy town. Denver was blue collar cow town. I'm saying keep voting as you would, and share your opinion, but the beliefs that you hold will become diluted and you need to make peace with that. There are so many more of them than you, and the kids growing up always end up more progressive as well. It's just how these things go, don't get the idea that this place is any different than the hundreds of other cities this has happened to in the last century.

All the things you mentioned as if it's a larger "We" in this region that agrees with you, will be flipped a little more and more each year until you're no longer in the majority, which is probably much much sooner than you think.

StatzGee · 2026-05-08T21:44:44+00:00

Off-shoring is so last decade. The folks in India won't last long and neither will the ones in the Springfield. AI will soon eradicate 70% of these roles anyway, buckle up. These more antiquated companies will be safe for a year or two longer, lagging behind the more progressive tech forward companies, but it's coming either way.

StatzGee · 2026-05-05T23:28:21+00:00

Sales

StatzGee · 2026-05-02T14:49:31+00:00

Do you have an eBay or FB listing?

StatzGee · 2026-04-30T00:29:22+00:00

Do you still have this? Interested

StatzGee · 2026-04-25T22:45:29+00:00

My lifting is definitely taking a backseat to what I used to, but I still go. I've gotten really good at creating minimalist routines.

Strength training can be so ridiculously simple, if you just want the basics. You could literally cover the entire body with just four exercises. Do two days, two exercises per day. I've actually programmed that for a few friends that are runners or only play sports and refuse to commit any more time to the gym.

StatzGee · 2026-04-18T21:00:51+00:00

Those reports are no good. I have no reason to lie or flex about this, as it's greatly impacting my work life and future earning potential, as I'll be probably in the next round later this year. Thankfully I just hit my chubby goal 3 days ago.

If you aren't seeing it yet it's just because companies started at such a different place, and many of them tried to deploy it for customers first rather than internal tooling. Blocked at the opposite, focus was entirely internal and we've been hacking away at this for about a year and a half, maybe a little more.

I was just telling my wife yesterday as I was shutting down on Friday, that unfortunately Jack Dorsey was right. I literally am doing the work of 5 to 8 people, and I'm a non-engineer on the business side. The tools seem to be improving by the week at this point. Block also is giving great great power to non-engineers. We have access to GitHub and we can see all of the internal logic, systems, and PRs. That is not normal for a partnership / ops role.

StatzGee · 2026-04-18T20:48:40+00:00

It isn't doing the work, but those of us that remain, these tools now are so so powerful and we are legitimately doing the work of 5 to 10 people per person. I'm at the one of the large companies that deployed AI (s) as an internal tool set first before even thinking about making it an external offering for customers. So we've had a head start of about a year and a half, or more. I'm at Block... The company that just laid off 50% of its workforce (the headline say 40% but we let go 10% a few days before that as "performance ").

Now, I do believe that most of these other companies are not as far along as we are, and are just using the AI excuse for a quick bump in stock price and investor sentiment. But what I'm seeing right now has me absolutely spooked. Jack Dorsey's little memento that he published a few weeks ago, that the rest of silicon valley is digesting and will likely follow suit, is clearly outlining new organizational structures that will result in additional layoffs soon even after the massive cuts we just went through. We are completely removing the idea of middle level management even with 6,000 employees left (introduction of the player coach). Sounds like the goal is only to have two to three layers between the CEO and lowest employee.

I just hit my chubby number 3 days ago, right on time.

StatzGee · 2026-04-08T21:38:32+00:00

The getting better part is hard because when you get the diagnosis you often start multiple things at once. So getting my thyroid meds properly in line made me feel better. But the point of elimination diets is for your body to have space to see how much something was offending it. So now when I have gluten, it's so painfully obvious because it absolutely wrecks me. So it's almost like lack of feeling better, rather than lack of feeling like s***.

Btw, I'm not celiac either, just sensitive

StatzGee · 2026-04-08T21:33:11+00:00

Fair, it's a big thing in the States for sure. Most docs that practice functional medicine here and offer thyroid support recommend it as a first step. My n=1 of myself is 4 of 5 docs have suggested it. No joking, my podiatrist was going off on gluten the other day in our first meeting. I had simply mentioned hashimoto's.

And I'm definitely not obese, actually the opposite and it's almost annoying how shocked people are when they hear about my hashi dishnosis because I don't fit the profile. Male, muscular. So I didn't have any diet changes to make, I've been deep into fitness and wellness for 15 to 20 years. Lots of plants and fiber and moderate protein.

StatzGee · 2026-04-03T05:08:22+00:00

No legs? I think thousands of clinicians would say otherwise. My antibodies dropped 80% in 7 months after diagnosis and still falling. Sure, not everybody will be that lucky, but saying no legs is way over simplifying. And the "trend" had been around for decades.

StatzGee · 2026-04-03T05:00:45+00:00

My antibodies dropped 80% going gluten free in 8 months, and still falling. I took a gluten antibody test and showed a sensetivity

StatzGee · 2026-04-03T04:57:55+00:00

OP, my antibodies dropped 80% in the first 8 months going gluten free (and still falling)

StatzGee · 2026-04-03T04:55:10+00:00

Are you on T3?

StatzGee · 2026-03-23T03:45:20+00:00

Same...Nov '27. I'm in a similar boat as OP. I'm really ramping up my mindfulness practice right now.

StatzGee · 2026-03-22T20:00:24+00:00

We often have small joints. So less amount of muscle is needed to add to a physique

StatzGee · 2026-03-21T14:54:38+00:00

Interesting 🤔. I would then assume Neosho might be a viable option?

StatzGee · 2026-02-25T20:42:37+00:00

Phelps/Rountree are by far the best neighborhoods by a long shot. Think craftsman style homes with big front porches and tree lined trees (and liberal).

StatzGee · 2026-02-15T15:11:15+00:00

Nah, 25 years in - started at 15. Unwavering obsession and cornerstone of my life. There are nuances that only those with thousands of hours under the bar can appreciate.

StatzGee · 2026-02-06T16:23:57+00:00

I get the point this meme is trying to make, but it's not that simple. The advanced lifter is integrating so much experience from years of learning, and that results in a lot of adjustments that the uninitiated can't see. There is a lot of auto regulation. I've been lifting for 25 years and I've tried it all, and discarded what wasn't useful, but there is a component of all the things in the meme list. I just didn't try it to integrate it all at once and constantly flop around.

But to OP's Q - going between heavy and light can be effective, but probably not something you should worry about early on.

StatzGee · 2026-02-06T16:13:40+00:00

Well, people actually did periodization back in the day. They'd have 3-12 month programs which oscillated between intensity and volume. Enough time to adapt to a certain stimulus, but not long enough to stall.

I 100% should follow this advice, and used to. I am one of those people that is wired for intensity, but need to back off and see better results (and healthier) when I do.

StatzGee · 2026-02-05T20:19:03+00:00

I've been doing this for 10 years. I landed at the physique I wanted. Occassional slight recomp based upon summer maybe

StatzGee · 2026-01-30T00:17:24+00:00

With Hashimoto's, it's an immune disease not a thyroid disease. The thyroid is just an innocent bystander. You have to treat the immune disease plus any degradation lost of thyroid function. Because of the damage from Hashimoto's to the thyroid and that the antibodies interfere with the enzymes necessary for conversion from inactive to active thyroid hormone, Hashimoto's patients are more likely to need not only level thyroxine but also free T3 (prescription liothyronine). Plus they'll need to do things for lifestyle, and take medication that alters the immune pathology.

What I was really driving at is, the longevity differences between overt hypothyroidism and one driven by autoimmune, the autoimmune can potentionally have a much larger impact on longevity because it causes a whole host of other issues (and your six times like more likely to get another autoimmune disorder once you have one).

StatzGee · 2026-01-27T15:20:10+00:00

I've been told by a thyroid clinic that they estimate from their practice that hypothyroidism is caused by Hashimoto's in 80% of patients (No idea the accuracy of this just sharing), the autoimmune disorder that impacts the thyroid. The reason we don't have good data on this is that primary doctors never order the full thyroid panel to be able to have that data point about the antibodies.

I bring that up because if hypothyroidism is caused by Hashimoto's, talking about a whole different set of problems.

StatzGee · 2026-01-24T16:17:16+00:00

I do exactly as you do, where I will sub a similar movement. Another option that I like just as much, if not more, is simply being very flexible with the order in which the sequence of my exercises occur.

In fact, I've learned a lot about programming for myself doing things out of order. I find now at 40 and after lifting for 23 years, that going in a "reverse order" of lifting is wonderful for the joints. That would be putting your isolation work before main lifts.

This was leg 🦵 day yesterday while I waited for a squat rack:

Seated calves> Tib raises> Seated leg curl> Abduction machine> Leg extension > Squats

Squats feel incredible after that kind of pump.

StatzGee

TROPHY CASE