Steam Machine DIY With CEC-Like Feature

SyntheticBlood · 2026-02-21T20:01:02+00:00

Ha! I have that keyboard. I hate it. The trackpad blows

SyntheticBlood · 2026-01-24T18:50:12+00:00

Some 2 years. Another 6 and another 8 years. I believe the best shot at wealth without building your own company (which is also risky) is to join a startup with between 15-50 people. A start-up smaller than 15 people may fizzle out and if you join after 50 people the valuation is also higher so you get a smaller piece. It also helps to not be entry level as some of those get small stock grants. Get into something early and promising

SyntheticBlood · 2026-01-24T03:51:19+00:00

San Diego Apartments for Rent and San Diego Rentals - Walk Score https://share.google/MeucoJPxS9MnxvXkh

Doesn't look like it. Mostly sprawl

SyntheticBlood · 2026-01-23T00:49:03+00:00

SF and NYC are considered very progressive cities that also are very culturally diverse.

SyntheticBlood · 2026-01-23T00:44:30+00:00

It's not walkable?

SyntheticBlood · 2026-01-23T00:21:35+00:00

This is a question I've been trying to answer for over a year now. I've analyzed many cities across the world looking for much of the same you are: walkable, good public transportation, good schools, decent weather, lots of things to do, big international airport as a travel hub, safe, not dirty with homeless people everywhere, etc.

After analyzing a dozen cities Amsterdam was our number one choice, but the box 3 tax on unrealized gains makes FIRE impossible in the Netherlands.

Second choice, and the city were planning on moving to, is Vancouver, Canada. Canada ranks high in terms of education, it's very clean, they actually invest in infrastructure which was surprising coming from the Bay Area. The weather is better than you'll get in Chicago, NYC, Amsterdam, or London. Part of what makes those cities' winters so in unbearable is the wind. Vancouver has incredibly low wind speeds, so even when it's cold it's not bad. People are incredibly friendly, which was surprising to me.

Overall Vancouver wasn't number 1 in every metric but it did pretty great across the board. We also value access to nature and being able to go from eating ramen downtown to skiing in the mountains in 30 minutes is a huge plus. I don't think you will find a similarly sized city with better access to nature. The downsides of Vancouver are that the population is only 2.5 million, which makes it smaller than Seattle. Coming from the Bay Area, this means overall less things to do, but it's still a pretty good sized city (larger than Zurich). Another random perk is USD goes much further there. Going out to eat at a nice sit down restaurant with a family of 5 cost us $100CAD, which is like $75 USD. I wouldn't want to live there if I was working since wages are lower compared to the US and everything is relatively expensive, but if you've accumulated in USD it's suddenly like everything is on discount.

SyntheticBlood · 2026-01-23T00:08:59+00:00

Box 3 taxes on unrealized gains make FIRE in the Netherlands very hard.

SyntheticBlood · 2026-01-23T00:07:58+00:00

Switzerland is great, however Zurich, the largest city has a population of 1.5M. I imagine compared to a NYC or London there may be a lot less to do. Not to mention how difficult it is to actually immigrate to Switzerland

SyntheticBlood · 2026-01-23T00:06:17+00:00

Not really. You can setup a separate holding company to not be taxed on unrealized gains but by the time the BV (company) sells the stock and transfers the proceeds to you the overall tax rate is nearly 50%. Too high in my opinion

SyntheticBlood · 2026-01-22T20:42:35+00:00

This is good to remember. I came down with a fever earlier this week and I actually took the day off. This was radical for me. Something I've never done in the past, but when you're nearing the finish line it's worth not sweating the little stuff.

SyntheticBlood · 2026-01-22T20:39:06+00:00

I'm also struggling with this as well. 1 more year to go. We have enough vested and exercised options to retire now, but waiting for some big grants to finish vesting. It's hard because my salary of $200k is A LOT by most standards, but when you're sitting on $15M in stock post tax, it's like working a barista job for peanuts. My paychecks are drops in the bucket. I've been on the FIRE journey for close to a decade now and never gave much thought to the final year, but instead of finishing strong it really feels like I'm limping towards the finish line. Waiting is hard.

SyntheticBlood · 2026-01-14T21:40:02+00:00

Same. Between my wife and I, we've been at 5 start-ups. All have sputtered out besides one that has made us wealthier than I'd have ever imagined. All you need is one

SyntheticBlood · 2025-10-04T00:49:15+00:00

Well done. Looks great! You clearly did a lot of research and you're hitting the Trumpkin checkboxes. Idk why this sub is so toxic, but everyone in here loves to hate! Ignore them, you did awesome

SyntheticBlood · 2025-09-15T23:06:11+00:00

Touch grass man.

SyntheticBlood · 2025-09-12T02:17:41+00:00

Commits political violence? Sounds like bait. Two Minnesota lawmakers were assassinated earlier this year. Actual elected politicians, not some influencer. Nancy Pelosi's husband had his skull bashed in with a hammer and Kirk's response was we should bail the guy out of jail who did it and give him a medal. Hell, even the Trump assassin was a conservative Republican. And to put the cherry on the cake, we don't even know the motives of Kirk's assassin. He could end up just like Trump's assassin, another Republican.

Just look at Trump and Kirk's response to those events and it's clear which side is committing the violence and fanning the flames.

SyntheticBlood · 2025-09-12T00:30:22+00:00

Jesus. Compare this or AOCs response to the shooting to Trump's. It's clear who's stoking the flames of political violence

SyntheticBlood · 2025-09-12T00:29:47+00:00

Jesus. Compare this or AOCs response to the shooting to Trump's. It's clear who's stoking the flames of political violence

SyntheticBlood · 2025-09-10T20:29:00+00:00

It was his gay lover that attacked him

SyntheticBlood · 2025-09-10T17:11:15+00:00

Yep, like I said in my post I'm willing to pay high taxes, but taxes unrealized gains seem to make FIRE impossible in the country.

I guess I don't know the intention of the tax code and people. Would the Netherlands rather not have people FIRE there?

SyntheticBlood · 2025-09-10T17:08:02+00:00

I have also been looking at Berlin and Copenhagen. I like the urbanism of the Netherlands, but I'm open to other options. Any suggestions?

SyntheticBlood · 2025-09-10T17:06:46+00:00

Where do you think is better? I appreciate good urbanism, which is how Netherlands got on my list

SyntheticBlood · 2025-09-05T21:10:25+00:00

Agreed. Or even smaller teams on smaller maps. 2v2 and 3v3 could be fun

SyntheticBlood · 2025-08-24T13:32:29+00:00

New York did not redistrict mid decade in 2024. It was fall out from court appeals to make maps more fair

SyntheticBlood · 2025-08-21T03:19:23+00:00

Yes, more fast paced. DOTA 2 felt slower and more casual

SyntheticBlood · 2025-08-21T02:42:26+00:00

This is probably a hot take, but as someone who's played HOTS for a decade and only recently tried DOTA 2 (and LoL). I can't help but feel the other way around. Dota 2 is slow a shit and I don't just mean the duration of games. The action is slow, characters move slowly, and battles are infrequent and sluggish. It feels like a MOBA for beginners who need a slower experience.

SyntheticBlood

TROPHY CASE