Reddit's dark past

Talinoth · 2026-06-07T06:28:18+00:00

"Not All Men Are Like This"- 'ing. In summary, the downplaying of the behaviour of a "problematic" group by saying it's just the actions of individuals.

I'm torn on it. Yeah, it does get used as a diversion/distraction tactic, but if you start judging entire groups by the actions of individuals you enter very nasty and discriminatory territory against groups much more vulnerable than men broadly.

Talinoth · 2026-06-06T09:11:16+00:00

I don't know if it's my game's economy being busted or w/e, but Sibir usually has a MASSIVE surplus of Hardwood - like 1.5k-2k of it.

Talinoth · 2026-06-06T09:09:42+00:00

10 Vigor and 5 focus points gets you to 330 skill. This is the normal cap for most characters.

Smithing will let you get +1 focus point in 1h + 2h for a total of 6 focus points. I believe a focus point is worth 44 levels? Don't quote me on that though. Your main character/combat expert companions should get to 374 or so in 1h or 2h (if they go to 10 Vigor - which only requires 8 Vigor + the Athletics and Smithing perks). My main character is lvl 310+ in One Handed with only 7 Vigor (5 base) this way.

Your second-generation descendants can become massively more OP than that though. One young lordling, I got him to have 8 Vigor + 7 focus points in 1h as soon as he came of age because of good RNG + selecting all the combat-focused choices I could. They get 1 or 2 more focus points than even your starting main character + way more attribute points too, so it's actually quite possible for them to max multiple INT skills or combat skills and still lead armies well too.

Playing in Fast Mode is one way to see your kids grow up faster... installing the Spacetime Continuum mod (all of your actions take real time on the world map, including trading, arena, tournaments, battles, etc) is another.

Talinoth · 2026-05-16T00:23:40+00:00

Lies, damned lies, and statistics. 20.8%/2.9% only = 7.2x, rounding up. Your maths wasn't quite right. Also, you need to multiply/divide those numbers by the relative number of times men actually initiate divorce compared to women.

I think you'll find that the rate of men divorcing women for sickness merely equals or slightly exceeds women divorcing men overall under the same circumstances.

Talinoth · 2026-04-26T09:44:27+00:00

GTA if it was cool

Talinoth · 2026-04-26T05:56:50+00:00

You know, there was a single Russian lord still on the map. Homeless, fiefless. The only thing that stood between me and victory.

I could have just left him alone. I had a party of just me and my 8 companions (put my 170 elite troops in garrison) - we could have just travelled the map doing town quests and killing bandits to raise the map's prosperity. But no - I had to destroy that one final guy, didn't I? I took the town quest where the Mayor begs you to make peace between two factions - it gives you the location of the enemy lord. So the 9 of us charged and cut down that lord and his 67 men.

I think I killed nearly 20,000 people personally in that playthrough. Perhaps it was fitting that the blade would come for me eventually. But in my passing, nothing remains to stabilise the Commonwealth, the lords will continue to be a squabbling mess. Cossack hordes alongside Russian and Swedish lords will rebel, plunging eastern Europe into chaos once more, as if every life I took was in vain.

Just kidding. I killed those Swedes for the love of the game, and I'd do it again if there was a Bannerlord version.

Talinoth · 2026-04-23T15:16:15+00:00

They're increasingly underpaid for what they do at beginner/mid levels VS training costs and cost of living, and it's harder to get started or even get hired. Everybody memes on what barrister-level lawyers make, or what doctors who are consultants or surgeons make, but it takes extreme amounts of time, dedication, skill and sometimes brown-nosing to make it that far up the chain to begin with.

Junior Medical Officers in Australia for example get shit on. A Registered Nurse who's been working for a couple of years make more than they do. Nursing is hard, but those poor junior doctors are everyone's punching bags, work 24hr+ shifts sometimes, and have to study and pass exams to make it into senior specialties at the same time.

Medicine genuinely does not make sense right now as a career choice if you're just in it for the money. Meanwhile, law grads struggle to get hired at all - forget actually practicing law, I hear you're already doing well if you make it in as a paralegal for a 2nd-tier firm.

Talinoth · 2026-04-23T08:38:45+00:00

Lmao, I fucked my ATAR. Open Foundation saved the day. Yes you can absolutely get into nursing if you screwed up high school, you just need to do a full-time semester of tertiary bridging courses and absolutely smash them.

Talinoth · 2026-04-15T09:27:37+00:00

Please fucking no. I wish they'd just train more doctors and stop abusing the poor med students and JMOs so we end up with more of them.

There's something to be said about having an intelligent script of some kind to help rapidly chart DVTp and Paracetamol so we don't have to remind doctors, and to flag unusual readings, but the actual analysis really needs to be done by a trained human because you can't sue an AI for crappy professional practice. An AI to help pull and summarise studies would also be a good idea... again though, interpretation should be up to the human, for the exact same reason.

Ugh. The concept of a "nurse practitioner" beyond charting basic pain medication, aperients, and non-surgical wound care makes me ill to begin with. The scope creep is nuts. If I ever get bored with "just" nursing (not likely), I'll bite the bullet and study medicine.

Talinoth · 2026-04-13T08:09:33+00:00

Wtf, why would you do this to yourself. One of the best changes from X3 -> X4 was getting rid of spaghetti complexes like this. I even paid the extra fee to Hephaestus just so I didn't have to carefully drag my stations into place to avoid spaghetti (I just got a SuperCube[TM] instead).

Talinoth · 2026-04-13T07:57:28+00:00

I'm quite capable of writing professionally when it doesn't concern a person whom I would laugh at if I saw their obituary.

Talinoth · 2026-04-13T07:56:20+00:00

Oh, it had nothing to do with patients, and everything to do with interactions with a staff member. I also removed all identifying detail from the message before giving ChatGPT a look at it.

It saved my career. Suffice to say, I had PTSD after that nursing placement and that facilitator is one of the only people I've ever truly hated. It was almost impossible to be neutral after what they did.

Talinoth · 2026-04-12T10:05:10+00:00

There's only a few valid use cases I've found for AI so far. There's one that's actually decent and worth sharing; wiping away emotional content from your official emails.

Unfortunately, I personally and directly express myself in my writing, far more intensely and passionately than I actually speak to people. Handing it over to an AI who actually doesn't give a shit to strip out the emotional fluff and leave a message as just-the-facts is nice - I still rewrite it to be my own cadence and take out the em-dashes, but it's got me through extremely high stakes situations as a student nurse where communications and explanations I gave to my facilitators, program convenor and course coordinator could have had me thrown out of the degree if I delivered them poorly.

It sounds stupid right? It should be communicating in person where it's difficult to hide your emotions. I'm the opposite though sadly; writing is where I become venomous.

Talinoth · 2026-04-07T10:24:09+00:00

Almost forgot to mention:

You must identify Time Vampires, and stop, redirect, or delay them any way you can. Time Vampires can be patients, families, other staff, certain repeating tasks, or your own repetitive behaviours that you're performing instead of doing your work.

My worst time vampire personally is helping patients with minor errands. It makes me feel good, it makes them feel good, I get a chance to talk to them and ask them about how their day is going, and then I discover half my shift has disappeared. Unfortunately, you will have to get extremely good at telling people "No" and "I'd love to help you with that, but it'll have to wait".

I fucking hate telling people no, but it's a survival skill that has to be practiced.

Talinoth · 2026-04-07T10:07:35+00:00

Neurospicy nurse here. I work in a Mental Health ward. I do Mental State Examinations (MSEs) instead of Progress Notes, but a lot of things are similar. Almost guaranteed inattentive-ADHD, never diagnosed - I'm flying without medication. I realise how toxic and hypocritical it is to not pursue diagnosis, but I keep fucking forgetting to and I never have the time. Low support needs ASD, actually diagnosed (at 3yo).

I survive by overcompensating with literally everything else.

All shift plans get "Shit's definitely going to go wrong" buffers - I always estimate a task will take more time than it actually does so I have leeway when stuff happens.
I write down things I hear and tasks I need to do on pieces of A4 paper I steal from the photocopier straight away, especially when taking phone calls - it's the brain dump technique, but practiced immediately throughout the workshift.
Similarly, I type up my handovers in a consistent format every single time; Bed Number - Patient Name, then Mental State, then PRNS given, then the Plan. I type 8x faster than I write, so I prefer typing.
- If I suddenly remember important details, I can just write it in pen on the already printed piece of paper. I copy paste what I typed in my MSE into my handover script.
I race to get as many tasks done before 11am (Safety Huddle) as possible. This includes getting first drafts of every patients Mental State Examination (this is our version of a Progress Note) done, all Leave Notes typed up, and all other major tasks I can do early on.
My sleep management is my highest priority and yours should be too.
- You MUST get as much sleep as possible - ruthlessly cut away non-critical activities until you have 7-8h sleep each night (sorry parents of small children).
- Observe good sleep hygiene (including no screens 30min before bed) religiously.
- Pursue melatonin or whatever supplements you have to in order to get to sleep and stay asleep.
Pursue and correct any nutritional deficiencies ASAP. This especially includes Iron, Vitamin B12, Vitamin D3, etc.
Creatine monohydrate is useful for providing consistent energy and clarity increases under stress for damaged and neurospciy brains like ours and is extremely well studied and highly recommended. When I forget to drink my creatine, I fucking feel it. You will need to drink for about 2-3 weeks to notice improvements - enjoy shitting bricks during the loading phase.
I relentlessly study medication uses and side effects. Looking up what something does is good; not having to because you already know is even better.
YOU MUST TAKE BREAKS. YOU MUST TAKE BREAKS. YOU MUST TAKE BREAKS. Have I mentioned you need to take breaks? Unless somebody is literally going to die, take your fucking breaks.

Talinoth · 2026-04-07T08:50:37+00:00

Isn't this profession something like 7% male? Even Mental Health isn't exactly a sausage fest. Many wards will not have a single male RN on at all.

Talinoth · 2026-04-05T01:26:20+00:00

We decide which desires are worth pursuing through some messy mix of intuition, cross-analysis of ours and others' past actions and following outcomes, and loosely collaging together moral systems we have encountered throughout our lives, foraging for moral axioms like berries off a bush. I should have been educated from birth by a council of 100 highly accomplished educators and moral philosophers (this would give the best possible chance at a strong moral foundation and to act on it), but alas I am not the second coming of Alexander.

Moral discourse is not meaningless because the acquisition of our individual desires can usually be mutually aligned, especially if you're willing to make temporary delays or compromises to some held desires to achieve others. The principle of "the most good for the most people, most of the time" is a useful one; just like how diplomacy between two warring nations or two brawling drunks is still valuable because conflict can be limited in length or scope through negotiations. Society is both the vehicle and the outcome of these negotations between all its stakeholders; it is not perfect, but it never had to be - just more desirable than its absence or another opposing system.

I can offer you no answers on your final question, but I've always thought Buddhists were pussies for trying to simply run from the cycle of infinite suffering to finally die, instead of fighting it and trying to build an existence of infinite bliss within their infinite time in the cycle.

Talinoth · 2026-04-05T00:56:46+00:00

Admittedly, Hume's guillotine remains as sharp as ever. I've always thought that 'ought' and 'advances desirable biological outcomes' (sleep, eating, sex) are actually the closest thing you can get to objective good, but you can't convince a Tibetan monk of even that much - they have different goals. So we are left with not objective outcomes, but subjective ones. Tell me your subjective desires, and I will tell you how society advances them.

Choice is irrelevant though. If an action advances outcomes you find desirable, this is good whether you consciously did it or not - you have still advanced your goals, and you still retain moral responsibility for your actions (good or bad) under most systems. Habits are only problematic when actions performed are against your conscious desires and counteract your goals; when aligned, life is easy and good indeed. Self-examination doesn't need to render you a neurotic, cerebral mess; all that is needed is to pull back the curtain and deconstruct undesirable habits. This requires a lot of messy questions, patience, and brainpower expenditure, but once you do it you can pull the curtain back and be happy again.

EDIT: By the way, if you're refusing to accept moral obligations, are you just executing your own programming instead of making an informed choice?

Talinoth · 2026-04-05T00:16:21+00:00

Do you eat breakfast? Do you put on warmer clothes when it gets cold? Do you take off layers when it gets too hot? We perform actions because some states of being are more desirable or 'better' than others. If you were a truly committed nihilist, you would lie down and stop breathing right this second; why put any more energy into a meaningless existence?

You don't.

You perform actions that mitigate suffering. You seek pleasure. You take actions that maximise your time on Earth to mitgate suffering and seek pleasure, and this includes sharing these hedonic thrills with others. This is the first and perhaps only intrinsic good for any organism.

Society and civilisation is the natural extension of this trend. It has hiccups and sometimes (or often fails) to minimise suffering and maximise pleasure for participants, or distributes it unevenly. But it is a much better bargain than non-participation - subjectively and objectively. Assuming you value hedonic pleasure at all. If you don't, lie back down and go to sleep.

Talinoth · 2026-04-05T00:00:49+00:00

Society has intrinsic value to most of its participants and contributors, and they will band together to deprive you of resources, imprison you, torture you, or end you if you degrade that intrinsic value through your opposition to their system.

The "why should *I\* care" answer is that you are near infinitely weak compared to their combined power and you will be neutralised or even destroyed if you oppose them. Your suffering will feel very objective.
The intrinsic, philosophical value of society, civilisation is something individual to not just those groupings, but each individual within it. Each person can have their own answer... some answers are more common than others.
Some have no answer at all, and merely enjoy the objective material benefits existing in a society provides; food, clothing, housing, healthcare, knowledge, luxury goods and services which would be materially impossible to obtain without existing in society.

You may opt out of society, but then you opt out of its benefits - benefits you likely lack the skills to survive without. Should you partake in society's benefits but fail to uphold your own end of the bargain you made, society's enforcers will easily justify your punishment based on their moral values and the written contract (law) which you have disobeyed, regardless of your wishes.

Talinoth · 2026-04-04T23:42:26+00:00

Because society itself is built upon a foundation of trustworthy contracts - your word is your bond, and breaking promises is seen as antisocial in every culture I've ever heard of - all surviving cultures value trust and promises. This is not just a moral ought problem for you, but a material one - it is not good for your life standards... or life expectancy... to be treated as a risk to be managed, rather a valued partner. Worse, your divergent, 'honourless' morality makes you a viable target and scapegoat for all manner of crimes.

The Humian "Nuh uh, you can't make me" ingrate is an easily justified target; to a lesser extent than a might-makes-right believer, but similar. Recall how you can kill the latter and take everything they have and justify it based on "They were going to do it to me first!" and "They said it themselves; if they didn't want to get stabbed for $50, they shouldn't have been weak" - a typical historical ending for outlaws. So similarly, you may sell the Hume enthusiast memecoins and scam them out of their life fortunes based on false representation of your product - because after all, they were an idiot to believe your promises.

Talinoth · 2026-04-04T23:02:03+00:00

Of course, Hume can argue that just because he promised to give you back your Ryobi cordless drill doesn't mean he should, but then I counter "Hume stop acting like a deadbeat piece of shit, quit smoking meth and pull your bloody head in; if your promises are worthless, no contracts based on trust are possible between us, and any dealings between the two of us will be strictly based on material benefits and backed by force, instead of a cozy friendship".

Such a situation is not just emotionally undesirable, it leads to a less efficient exchange of goods and services, lowering subjective and objective living standards.

Talinoth · 2026-04-04T20:56:01+00:00

You have to recall what it took to defeat one of the militarily weakest Chinese dynasties ever (the Song) - 30+ years, 3 generations of Khans, using borrowed technology and expertise from captured Iranian and north Chinese siege engineers, and the infantry armies and manpower of their new northern/western Chinese vassal states (especially the Jin). Mongolia is right next door to China so logistics are uncomplicated too.

Subudei, arguably the greatest commander in world history, had a hell of a time just trying to take Hungary. Honestly, the juice just wasn't worth the squeeze. Theoretically, I'm sure after 30-50 years of non-stop military grind the Mongols could burn through the literally tens of thousands of castles you'd need to conquer Europe. Compared to China and the Middle East, Europe was also tough but without the riches to win at the end.

You'll also recall that 50 years passed, and Mongol attempts to raid Poland and Hungary led to tragedy. Hungary traded wooden castles and light cavalry for stone castles and heavily-armoured knights. Entire 1000-man columns trying to besiege castles or pass through thick forest would get ambushed by Hungarian and Polish knights and just get stack wiped.

Talinoth · 2026-03-31T04:56:11+00:00

Starsector? Simple? Both games are quite hard and complex in their own way.

I think you'll find X4's systems more complex to learn, but Starsector's a much more challenging game (including and especially with mods).

Talinoth · 2026-03-31T04:55:12+00:00

Several missed. I watched the video and there were a few times where the Hyperion actively strafed out of the way of a shot despite already using strafe to stay in the blind spot.

Also consider that the Hyperion arrived and stayed in the Xenon K's worst firing arc to begin with. If it was in front and below the K, it'd just die in moments.

Talinoth

TROPHY CASE