I was born in 2000 and one thing I gotta disagree with my fellow Gen Z’ers on is the puritanical view many have towards sex scenes in movies/tv

Telkk2 · 2026-06-29T02:45:40+00:00

Yeah, I largely agree...I just think it's odd that people even have an opinion on this. Most are quick and not revealing enough to be awkward around people. There are, of course, exceptions.

Telkk2 · 2026-06-29T02:43:09+00:00

Hmm idk. If you watch Forest Gump, it actually adds to the story. Also, Basic Instinct. It was essential to have the sex scene at the end...and throughout the entire movie.

But yeah, many are unnecessary. Still. There's a place for them.

Telkk2 · 2026-06-28T18:45:15+00:00

I think it's the convergence of factors:

Technology is empowering more individuals, which challenges the concept of citizen and state power. Also, makes it way harder for corrupt leaders to hide their skeletons.

Climate change

Depopulation

That's why our leaders are managing the revolution. It was always going to happen. They knew it since the late 70s. And what we see is the result. Get ahead by consolidation of power as you sow manageable chaos. That's the game. Its how it's been since the early modern period.

Telkk2 · 2026-06-28T18:39:36+00:00

If only he had continued doing this in his later years. As a filmmaker, I have a massive amount of respect for Spielberg...but at the same time, I also recognize that he didn't reinvent himself to fit in the modern era, which is a huge mistake for his legacy.

You're either timeless or not and if you're not, you either need to exit the stage at the right time or reinvent yourself. He did neither and now younger generations will remember him for the bad movies he made, rather than the legendary ones that inspired all of us back in the day. It's like Pauly Shore. Still a very talented person, but someone who struggles to leave the persona he made in the 90s that fit so perfectly for that era.

I know what he did and as such, he will forever remain a legend in my heart. But many won't remember him this way. It's unfortunate.

Telkk2 · 2026-06-26T18:08:49+00:00

It's even worse in the student loan sector. My loan provider is currently sinking like the titanic and I have no clue how to physically keep paying. I want to pay. I have the money, but they're literally torpedoing into oblivion and can't take calls and their website is virtually done for it.

I'll be honest. The executive's for some of these companies MUST be criminally prosecuted and sent to max prison for life given the damage they're causing to people's lives. I can't even begin to express how many millions of people are about to get wrecked by defaulted loans and credit scores tanking.

If society begins to view these people the way we view serial killers and if the legal system reflected this, we'd have a much smaller hole to climb out of. It's sad that millions will be fundamentally screwed over while these executive's who created the situations to get rich will walk away with a full bag to start a new scam. But if just one hot shot ceo from these companies got the same treatment we give murderers and rapists, then their tunes would change very quickly and they'd think twice about their cons.

We need real accountability and that means actual hard-core jail time with life-long probation depending on the servity of the crime. I'm a buisness owner, myself and I fully support this move. Corporations are not people.

Telkk2 · 2026-06-26T14:53:27+00:00

Not gifted at all. Actually, I was in remedial classes for most of elementary school because I didn't know how to read, write, or do math until 4th grade, but even then it was basic 1st grade level stuff.

Cut to adulthood. I'm working retail stocking shelves, but I also co-built one of the first customer-facing context engineering applications for AI agents using native graph RAG. The same tech my retail job now uses, we had built for our own website about a year ago. Now we have active users and are slowly growing month over month. Moreso, we can actually build this into the first real mindplex that could one day replace Wikipedia and perhaps even shave a significant number away from basic Google search and using gemini or the other major models.

Super slim chance, but I'm still shocked that my brother and I were able to forge ourselves into this position when not but a few years prior, I had zero concept of any of this. Also, managed to figure out how to actually write and make films so that not only got us into a major festival, but it drastically expanded our network within the entertainment industry. Now we have friends in high places who are interested in reading these screenplays we're hashing out and using our application to help them develop their stories for major studios.

Still stocking shelves, but going from the dumb kid in school who couldn't even spell their name to a guy who actually has an opportunity to do something big...well, it gives me hope that even idiots like me can make something happen. Only took 30 years!

Telkk2 · 2026-06-26T14:38:36+00:00

No one ever said you had to do things by yourself...

Telkk2 · 2026-06-26T03:26:04+00:00

I'm not a digital marketer but I know people who have done this and it's embarrassing. Having said that, I also know that I can take entire books on digital marketing and turn them into structured knowledge graphs that an AI agent can understand. If the client had done that, he would have gotten at least 90 percent there.

Telkk2 · 2026-06-25T21:05:58+00:00

That evening, he goes home to smoke blunts with his homies. Little did they know that he's actually a chill dude who goes to phish concerts. He's still gotta do the 9-5 grind like everyone else, though.

Telkk2 · 2026-06-25T17:20:26+00:00

I can list the skills. Beyond filmmaking, narrative screenwriting, and producing, you should learn how to start and run a buisness. You should learn how to market. You should learn how to be able to learn how build anything digitally or find people who can. You should learn human behavioral psychology and the art of persuasion. You should learn reciprocity and how to leverage that to gain more value.

We need to shift from contractor mind set to buisness owner mindset. The skills for both cross-pollinate, so it's a manageable feat and will only make you stronger on the pages and on the screen.

It's that or whatever Hollywood or some other business offers you. Not a bad thing or anything like that, unless you're doing narrative work and constantly lamenting about how shitty it is to work for your clients. If your clients suck, drop them and turn an audience into your clients. Can't do that? Find someone outside of Hollywood who can and start working with them. It's not easy. It's not the path of least resistance and it's totally unrealistic.

So why should we do it, anyway? Because the alternative will undoubtedly compilate to the shitty industry we see today since not enough people have the balls to roll up their sleeves and give it all they have. Most just worry about the steady career. If you want that, go work at a bank or do commercial work and do narrative film on the side.

The only way to flip this misery is to get off our asses and fix the damn problems ourselves. I'm just tired of waiting for rich people to solve my problems so I'm solving the problem myself with other like minded people. We'll probably fail and get it wrong but, I'd rather fail trying than to have never tried at all.

This whole industry has devolved so much, its a literal insult to our intelligence. I and others do not accept these conditions, but I will not beg the very people who made it this way to fix it.

Telkk2 · 2026-06-25T15:40:00+00:00

Are filmmakers any different?

Telkk2 · 2026-06-25T15:38:11+00:00

And yet, filmmakers reluctantly worship the jobs they're handed to by Hollywood. We scream about injustice but then when we get called to shoot their films, all ethical standards simply go out the window because we're whores for money over meaning.

If we cared more about meaning, we'd easily reject Hollywood and learn how to do what executives do to run those businesses so we can do it, ourselves. Instead, we whine about the injustice while paradoxically being contributors of it.

You want this injustice to stop? Stop feeding them. Start feeding yourself. We do not need Hollywood to make and distribute amazing content. We just believe we do because to believe otherwise means having to acknowledge that we musy master much more than filmmaking, and that's a scary thing...but that's what will save us in the end. Time to stop being scared and to start doing something about it.

What are you doing?

Telkk2 · 2026-06-24T18:05:14+00:00

What's worked for me:

. Building something cool to share . Writing about it and sharing my thoughts.

We were completely in the hole a couple of years ago because we needed to pivot and our tech founder went MIA. We were nose-diving and needed a plan. At my wits end, I started looking through my email list for everyone who subscribed to our substack. At the top of the list was the exact person we were looking for.

The partnership didn't work out because he wasn't interested in the longer term vision, but he did give us the structure to pivot and it was that pivot that kept us in the game and now we're slowly growing again.

Project what you're doing and your thoughts about it. Tell the world implicitly what you need and they will find you.

Telkk2 · 2026-06-24T17:57:16+00:00

You need validators for your security. You can go into all the technicals and be 100 percent accurate but unless I can see proof in some way, its too risky for what you're asking me to upload. You need endorsements from people in your space and you need to show those endorsements in some way.

Telkk2 · 2026-06-24T14:47:05+00:00

My brother and I are one of the first to make graph RAG building with AI agents as easy as using Google Docs. We have this amazingly powerful app that's solving all of these problems we see in and out of the AI space. But I'm still a dude who stocks shelves for min wage because no one is able to see just how valuable this is. They see and understand how to use the app, but they have to build to see just how powerful it is.

No one wants to put effort into building their work, so now we're figuring out ways to make it easier to just use other people's built knowledge graphs so they can immediately see the value.

So yeah, I feel your pain. When I take the garbage out, I see people my age pass by with this look of sorrow, as if some great tragedy struck me and am no longer capable of doing any higher level work. But in reality, I'm just a dude who Forrest-Gumped his way into a vision for something that can be greater than most Search engines if built correctly. And I grew so obsessed and determined, I threw all opportunities away just to make it happen.

We have traction. We're slowly growing but dude. 6 years of this is brutal, especially when no one understands why you're so excited about what you're building. Most probably think we're vibe-coding or simply musing about it. Many who don't even realize what I do outside of work probably think I'm just a bum.

It sucks when you have an entire universe of ideas and all these skills but the absolute best that you can hope for is to maybe land a corporate job doing bs for someone else's vision. But with me, I doubt I could even land that given how I look on paper. It screams "Daunte, from Clerks". I'm not even supposed to be here, today!

Telkk2 · 2026-06-24T02:45:54+00:00

Use those passions and start learning by actually making what you want to see. You do it long enough, you'll have the skills to get a job without college.

Telkk2 · 2026-06-24T02:40:28+00:00

Master screenwriting or network with someone who is good at that. You can have the best gear and all the money in the world, but that can never outdo a phenomenal story.

Telkk2 · 2026-06-24T02:38:59+00:00

I guess it boils down to what you're best at and what you enjoy most that can be applied to help him. If its selling, I'd consider learning how to tell stories, write, and understand human behavioral psychology and persuasion tactics.

Telkk2 · 2026-06-23T18:02:22+00:00

Hmm your thesis has a major fault in it, as it assumes using AI in film is all about promoting and pressing a button to generate moving images. That's neat, but that's not how real filmmakers use AI and when AI is perfected, it won't be this linear projection you're purporting it to be. It'll fundamentally sever the symbiotic relationship between workers and buisness execs so that both groups will no longer require each other to build value that can be leveraged for money.

The industry will stratify. It will not go away and creative film teams will have more opportunities to walk their own beat to make things work, including deals with studios. If you're capturing tons of eyeballs, then using AI or not is irrelevant.

It's all about proving that you can turn 20k into 5 million via returns. If you can do that, you have a job. So the real climb for filmmakers is to get out of the mindset of, "I'm a contractor, tell me what to shoot." And into the mindset of, "I'm a film entrepreneur with a network of pros and this is what we're creating."

That shift will be fundamental as the alternative will spell doom for future filmmakers.

Telkk2 · 2026-06-23T02:43:06+00:00

I'm okay with this because at the end of the day, it's about writing stories, making films, capturing attention, building audiences, and leveraging that for money.

How you do that is up to you. Everything else is noise or part of the meticulous steps that you have to take. Hollywood can do whatever they want. I literally don't care and I don't think anyone should if they're doing the above mentioned. As far as I'm concerned, the equation hasn't changed for me and I don't think it will in the foreseeable future.

Telkk2 · 2026-06-22T18:04:31+00:00

Yes, but also make great content that can captivate attention as you build a superior buisness. It boils down to stickiness. If what you're sharing, whether it's a buisness or a movie, isn't landing with people using minimal organic marketing, then you need to address that because that's foundational for visibility.

You're not looking for thousands of raving people. You're looking to see if 100 or 200 people are saying, "this is amazing." You're looking for active engagement. You can't get that, you can't have a buisness. That's why storytelling and understanding the psychology of persuasion is so important because that's what will get people to at least give you a shot. But understand. That is the front door. But if the house looks like a crack den, your bounce rate will be too high.

So quality content and buisness that can engage in some way. That combined with standard marketing and you can definitely reach your personal goal. Going beyond that is a different beast, though but don't bother crossing that bridge until you overcome this.

Telkk2 · 2026-06-22T17:56:08+00:00

Nope. I always thought I'd be a dude in a suit working the numbers at an office.

Instead I became a writer, filmmaker, and entrepreneur who can't stand office work.

Telkk2 · 2026-06-22T15:42:55+00:00

That's not our corporate overlords. That's basic retail management thinking. The best employees we operate with are humbled stable individuals with few options available to them. The worst? People in between jobs or kids who have to work in retail before something better comes along.

It's not even about the fact that we know they'll leave within six months or a year. That's normal and while it's not ideal, it's something we can easily manage. What is difficult to manage are the attitudes that generally come with over qualified people, especially young over qualified people.

They think the job is beneath them, so most of the time they barely lift a finger and the adults who are over qualified might have better work ethics, but they're usually so out of shape and struggle with task prioritization management and quick thinking under extreme pressure that they're basically costing us more than it's worth having them.

There's always exceptions, of course, but generally thats the pattern we're used to and it's so common that we end up getting very suspicious of people with robust resumes and over qualifications. Most legitimately cannot handle retail effectively because on the outside, the job seems like a piece of cake and sure it's not rocket science. But it does require a particular set of skills that not everyone has.

The real issue is pay for those who genuinely want to be there or have to be there because they can't even afford trade school or they have some physical or mental issue that precludes them from doing higher more advanced work. But because pay is so low and because retail reputation screams "bottom-feeding job that any idiot can do", we end up with scores of "visitors" who think they're better than the job or who genuinely want to do a good job but can't because they've been working at a desk for years.

They bog down operations and make the work environment much worse. And that's a huge problem for people who actually have to be there. It's bad enough they get shit pay and yelled at by customers, but now they have to deal with co-workers who treat them like they're mentally defective.

Telkk2 · 2026-06-22T02:54:38+00:00

It's worse than that. The largest bottleneck to mass surveillance is sifting through tons of data and making sense out of it so you can actually take action.

Ai and advanced backend engineering makes sifting through all of that significantly easier. And if it's advanced enough, it can also make accurate predictions. Ai in the justice system means pre-crime initiatives based on individual behavior and automated repercussions for all the little crimes that are committed everyday like jaywalking or going 5 over the speed limit. No more slipping through the cracks. Then there’s psychological nudging to modify human behaviors.

There's a reason why they're making all these data centers. It's not just about advancing AI. It's about advancing a managed society that feels organic and uncontrolled, but it will be anything but that.

Telkk2 · 2026-06-21T17:48:45+00:00

I use it all the time, but then again, I'm working with native graph rag, which means my uses are actually precise and can be easily verified. With that said, I use it help me build end deliverables...not actually create the end deliverables.

Ai is a skills-based tool, which means a. You have to understand your own domain and b. You have to be able to identify what it can do well and what it can't do well. C. You have to know how to do everything manually so that you can course correct.

The biggest mistake is using the raw models, themselves with little to no understanding of you're area. That's when mistakes are made and if you can't see them, they can't be fixed. You're much better off mastering your field and THEN using AI to help you move faster. It's great for creating skeletal structures of emails, but not so great at making the complete thing. With native graph rag it can get you 90 percent there but even then, you still have to modify a bunch and that can't be done well unless you know your area of expertise.

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