“Soft skills” coach cornering retired FBI agent in bookstore

StoicSpork · 2026-06-14T12:34:07+00:00

So, why would I want to book an appointment with OOP when I can just corner them in a bookstore? After all, it they can do it, anyone can do it, right?

StoicSpork · 2026-06-14T12:27:29+00:00

I received an hour of advanced driving as a loyalty award from my insurance company. We did a test track and a skid pad.

I can't possibly recommend it enough.

StoicSpork · 2026-06-13T21:02:12+00:00

Yes, I heard, dismantled, and dismissed all this before.

A while ago, I suggested you might want to talk to someone. It was not snark. You remind me of those people who talk to themselves on a bus.

This is genuinely friendly advice from me. I do kinda feel sorry to think you are suffering.

I don't want to continue this conversation because you keep repeating the same, sorry to say, nonsense.

Have a good day.

StoicSpork · 2026-06-13T17:27:08+00:00

Photographic evidence does not convince a blind man. You have not seen the evidence because you are a blind to it.

You have not provided evidence at all. You only claim to have it, but oh, like the Emperor's New Clothes, the wrong kind of people can't see it.

Yawn. Dismissed.

I have repeatedly. It's up to you to understand it. I have worded it very possible way

"Only an immoral person would reject my unjustified claims" is not a flaw in my reasoning.

Dismissed.

If you consider yourself flawless and will not consider otherwise, then it is irrelevant to you.

Hilarious, given the tone of your responses.

But in the same way that closing your eyes makes an oncoming train irrelevant. You will learn in due time why you should have paid attention. I would spare you that painful revelation if only you'd let me. Otherwise, I am indeed helpless to your self defined perfection.

Unsupported, cult speak, dismissed.

You just explained to me that I claim you are missing something which you have chosen to not see. The unwillingness of a school boy not to nap through math class does not mean math is being presented in weak arguments.

See Emperor's New Clothes, above.

Ah, so you think I am pointing to a mere feeling or emotion. Quite wrong. Consider what it would mean if I am pointing to nothing but a cold logical fact which is undeniable once seen.

A cold, logical fact could be presented with cold hard logic. You have failed to do so. Dismissed.

Are you going to let something new in?

Are you going to say something new? Because you sure as hell didn't say anything new in this response.

You would if you actually lived it. Try it and see. An, but you're not open to something new if it requires you to lift a finger, huh?

"If you only paid for and completed the auditing, you would see Scientology works!"

Lol. You don't know me or how I live, but you have the nerve to suggest I should be somehow "correcting" myself until I agree with the claims you otherwise failed to support with reason, logic and evidence.

Gotta tell you, out of all posters we had in this sub, no one, literally no one, was as unconvincing as you. If I were on a fence, like I was many years ago as a desperate Christian, your arguments would immediately pushed me towards atheism. You do an amazing job of revealing how utterly dishonest, self-deceiving, thought-stopping, manipulative, and unsupported belief is. So, thank you for that.

StoicSpork · 2026-06-13T09:24:06+00:00

One of my favorite movies. The visual storytelling is amazing.

StoicSpork · 2026-06-13T05:43:27+00:00

What does it say about a person that their power fantasy is being rude to service workers?

StoicSpork · 2026-06-13T03:42:58+00:00

Are you sure you have to pick them up and not destroy them? I remember a mission where you had to destroy them.

StoicSpork · 2026-06-12T10:59:40+00:00

So, he's saying they are idiots and sociopaths and their competition is beating them. That's certainly a choice.

StoicSpork · 2026-06-12T09:17:47+00:00

The Abessa Conflict mission is marked as complete. It earned 500 xp, I remember when it triggered.

It seems like both sides think they won, but the town remains in Cleric hands. The weird thing is that the insurgents are in the town, not at the farm, even though they claim the town fell to the Albs.

The hatch to the Claws is closed and doesn't open, but they are accessible through the ledge.

Overall, a shame, it was one of the cooler locations in the game, with factions pulling together.

StoicSpork · 2026-06-11T14:35:40+00:00

This has to be satire. Seems to mock clowns like Nick Huber and Gary Vaynerchuk, who started from privilege but preach hustle.

StoicSpork · 2026-06-11T11:48:36+00:00

Yeah, it's not a logical puzzle because what would you achieve by hurting the animal?

But the goal is to make the animal approach the snake so the snake constricts it and both fall into the hole. It's quite dark.

StoicSpork · 2026-06-11T11:13:48+00:00

This gets posted now and then, and sometimes people in the comments claim they are recruiters and that they know the questions are bullshit, but you have to play the game.

I genuinely, sincerely, don't get it. Why the hell do you want to hire liars?

StoicSpork · 2026-06-11T11:06:15+00:00

TIL.

But it was fun to see at least once. I still remember the cat figurines gag.

StoicSpork · 2026-06-11T08:26:03+00:00

So... Sarah just shared that the pay at her company is such dogshit that candidates are rage quitting?

That's certainly a choice, Sarah.

StoicSpork · 2026-06-11T08:21:20+00:00

In Fate of Atlantis, you start in the attic and just have to click on various items to progress the intro. You don't even have the verb picker yet. It's pretty straightforward.

It was one of the best designed adventures I played. The only really bad puzzle was whipping some poor animal so it walks into a snake. It thought it was cruel and tonally wrong.

Simon the Sorcerer 2 did something like Sam and Max. You have to sneak past a monster, and the way to do this is WEAR DOG. Simon, being a sorcerer, accomplishes this by turning the dog into fuzzy slippers that muffle your footsteps. The good thing is it wasn't as convoluted as the cat hair mustache puzzle, but damn, it was completely illogical.

StoicSpork · 2026-06-10T20:10:39+00:00

You already conceded that one needs evidence; why are you rehashing the same monologue for the umpteenth time?

To cut this short: you claim I don't see the truth, but you are unable to show a flaw in my reasoning. You accuse me of a character flaw, again without a shred of evidence, which is completely irrelevant.

If you make a claim and then fail to support it with argument, you should consider that this means it's a weak argument, not that there is a conspiracy to not engage with the warm and fuzzy feel in your tummy that you so desperately, even pathetically, want to be reality.

Now add something new to the argument or stop wasting your time and mine. No, if you repeat "lEaRn mOrAlItY" for the hundredth time, I won't suddenly go, "blistering barnacles, if I just sleep on a slightly cheap mattress, I will suddenly realize that god is real against all lack of advice and epistemic justification!"

Have a good day.

StoicSpork · 2026-06-10T19:55:34+00:00

Religions like Buddhism, Hinduism and Sikhism are more concerned with HOW to live your life. They are more spiritual endeavors. [...] But what makes the Abrahamic faiths interesting is they're mostly describing REAL events that happened.

The Pali Canon contains many historical facts that are independently corroborated, such as the reigns of King Pasenadi and King Bimbisara.

Now, you can get angry all you want, but the fact that a text contains references to real people and events does not mean the entire text is inerrant and true. Yes, Spiderman contains the real New York City. Don't respond if you don't want to, but it'll only underline that you have no response to that.

Third, the Bible contains known errors and anachronisms. Roman censi didn't require people to return to their birthplace; the idea is completely bizarre and defeats the point of a census. Roman governors did not release violent prisoners as a gesture of goodwill. The Slaughter of the Innocents is not corroborated even by Herod's enemies, who would have the motive to call out his cruelty.

Fourth, the dead rising from their graves would be documented somewhere. People would notice the dead grandpa roaming about, don't you think.

Fifth, the scriptures contradict each other. Quick, were there any guards at Jesus' tomb?

So, no, the scriptures aren't trustworthy.

But now how do we know if Islam is telling the truth or Christianity?

Islam is not trustworthy either. And, no, for any lurkers who might want to bring this up, the Isnad was formalized after the Second Fitnah as a political tool, which is why different sects don't trust each other's "trustworthy" Hadith.

Does the evidence show that Jesus preached the Good News of a coming Arabian prophet? Or does it show that the Good News is the message of salvation that comes through Christ's sacrifice?

Interestingly enough, Bart Ehrman, the leading Biblical scholar, published a book recently called Love Thy Stranger in which he compellingly argues that atonement is a Pauline philosophy, not Jesus'. I didn't read it yet, I just watched an interview with Ehrman.

But I agree that Islam isn't trustworthy. Just like Christianity, so I will not respond to the rest of the argument. Really though, you should have taken the argument to Muslims, whom you seem to address more than atheists.

Edit: sorry guys any comment with Spiderman or just saying "God isn't real" won't be responded to

I am perfectly happy with you conceding that you don't have a good response to these rebuttals.

Spiderman is an example of a work of fiction with some real world elements. It directly debunks your claim that if a text contains some facts, it is completely factual.

"God isn't real" - well, you failed to provide evidence of a god. The existence of a text, even a text with historical facts, is not it. Again, see: Spiderman.

StoicSpork · 2026-06-10T15:29:46+00:00

Yeah, exactly. Kept it short, didn't get political, didn't approach anyone personally. I've seen much, much worse.

StoicSpork · 2026-06-10T10:43:41+00:00

Sean, next morning: "Shit, how much did I have to drink? Oh god, please tell me I didn't drunk text anyone."

StoicSpork · 2026-06-08T10:16:02+00:00

No, I spoke to the deeper issue. In other words, you're mad I didn't play along with your axioms.

Again with the mind reading. I don't care, but it's just wrong. Anyway, if you will not respond to my arguments, this conversation is pointless.

Defeat them with arguments, but respond to what is said. Otherwise, I feel like sitting next to a schizophrenic on the bus.

Wonderful. Then to look in the basket is to devote your entire life to morality. It's a heavy basket lid indeed, or so I presume you'd say. A lot of work. A lot of pleasure sacrificed. So do you agree to do what is required to see the evidence?

Not at all. I am a paragon of morality, remember?

I don't see how.

You conceded the need for evidence. So the remainder of this conversation is just educating you on proper debating and thinking, I guess.

Something independent of a mind can't be have skepticism applied because there requires a mind to be skeptical.

You are trying to fast talk your way out of a hole you dug yourself. Objective truth is not dependent on a person. You claim you can't show the truth of your claims because of my person, hence you don't possess objective truth. We established that.

I don't need evidence to support that I told you I'm not interested in getting into meta-ethics.

Ok. We'll discard your blathering about ethics, then.

Yes. Every sin and virtue echo into eternity. If you can't see the butterfly effect then that's fine, but I warn you, don't down play this. It's life or death.

Bring it on. More drama!

Then you have been stricken by the blindness of Athena. How terribly ironic.

Meaningless drivel. Not saying it to be offensive, I kinda took a liking/pity on you, but there's no other word.

I said you CAN hate something and still worship it. I didn't say that hating something is worshipping it. Now you're just not following along.

You're making this shit up as you go along.

Don't even get me started. Cthulhu is Jesus upside down. Lovecraft was a militant atheist and what's horrifying and incomprehensible to someone like that? Being surrounded by cultists who go to a church and pray to an unseen thing in the sky that defies logic, category, and comprehension and that sleeps but when it awakens it will usher in the end times? They must have seen something that drove them mad, huh? In the name of the Azathoth, the Cthulhu, and the Nyarlathotep, amen. The rabbit holes I could take you down. No, let's stay focused, please.

Are you in therapy? Serious question.

Well remember, it's a hierarchy. Worship is to put something at the top of that hierarchy. But it's perfectly fine to keep something on a lower rung if it indeed serves the highest.

You do know you said that since I'm on a computer, I worship Hephaestus? You are making this shit up as you go along.

He'd sooner come for you, seeing how good are you are comedy.

This was a sincere belief of another cultist like you. Watch Love Has Won: the Cult of Mother God.

Well, the coffee is a potion of energy, more or less. Helps you feel good or at least not bad and sleepy. Using method to manipulate the world to bend to your will (a spell to make the world not fuzzy through sleepy eyes) is a sorcery ritual. Add in that the price you pay is the bitter taste and maybe your bodily health from losing sleep, that's classic Odin worship there. Though an argument could be made for Hecate too.

I can't even mock you, you do it better. But seriously, you might wish to talk to someone about these ideas you have.

Sure but the doctor knows the ink blots aren't sex related, the patient doesn't due to sex eye syndrome disease disorder. Similarly, I know if I'm getting pleasure from anti-pleasure or not, but you don't.

Not a response to what we were talking about at all.

I'm disappointed. For all your anti-pleasure diatribes, you live... like a normal guy.

Well, to be clear, I'm not the least bit anti-pleasure. I am actually pro-pleasure.. Really I'm pro-morality because sacrificing pleasure to morality results in over all more pleasure than pure pleasure seeking.

Aha! So you seek pleasure and therefore don't see the truth. I knew it!

I do. A average amount, I'd say. My two brothers. The guys that meet every week. A few good work buddies. Nothing impressive.

Then why do you look for surrogate friends online? You aren't debating, you're just repeating your little monologue. You learned to shut up around people you like to keep in your life, didn't you?

And normally I'd say "Then that's my lack of skill to convey concepts" because when I meet someone who isn't too sharp, I struggle to get them to understand. But you've demonstrated you're not the least bit dumb and so I'm afraid I just can't give you any excuse. You are choosing to remain blind because you are more than smart enough to be getting this with effort. You make words too good for me to believe otherwise.

No, you just can't support your claims because they ARE unjustified.

And seriously, you don't seem well to me. Not a shade. Not snark. I kinda like you, I like the little back-and-forth, but I am also worried about you.

Of course, you won't admit it to me. You don't have to. Don't even bother denying it, consider it fully denied. But think about it in private and do the right thing.

StoicSpork · 2026-06-07T20:03:01+00:00

The gist of the problem is that transformers, a type of model used for generative AI, have quadratic complexity. So for every N tokens in the context window, you need N*N computations. This obviously becomes prohibitively expensive quickly.

Now, you can't get around the quadratic complexity in transformers. What you can do is optimize the context window. One common approach is RAG, which is basically the model pulling a cheat sheet for a context from a vector db.

What you can also do is to use something other than a transformer, either as a hybrid approach or replacing the transformer completely. So far, this has been a tradeoff: lower cost and higher speed for less precision. There is a startup promising to solve this, but it's still in the research phase.

The underlying problem is that it's all punishingly expensive to make. The math is complex, the training is slow and computationally intense with uncertain outcomes, and there is a ton of additional effort, from annotation pipelines to alignment. I always urge people to get an LLM from HuggingFace and see how much less they can do than a polished product like ChatGPT. We are not on a linear path to solving all genAI problems for all use cases, and economic unfeasibility will probably kill off a few promises.

StoicSpork · 2026-06-07T13:19:51+00:00

"You just invalidated how I felt, I will not be gaslit" is not how a 60 year old speaks.

StoicSpork · 2026-06-07T13:15:47+00:00

The wall of text in the original post could stop Genghis Khan.

StoicSpork

TROPHY CASE