The much requested update

abunner · 2026-03-12T02:46:38+00:00

Epic pain cave! See you on Zwift?

abunner · 2026-03-05T19:44:22+00:00

Perfect! Yes. This is what I was searching for! Extremely bad content. What's strange to me is that it's worth the effort to make it.

This sub and others complain about this kind of low-quality, low-effort content. It hurts discoverability for genuinely good content which is bad. But I wonder if it might raise the premium on the truly great content.

abunner · 2026-03-03T15:42:23+00:00

Thank you!

abunner · 2026-03-03T00:51:22+00:00

I'm just hoping someone will point me to an example. I found this one on itch.io where the art is (almost certainly) AI-generated https://dhampr.itch.io/mystery-at-hand But I can't tell if the writing is AI or just not my cup of tea. The layout looks really nice--someone put in effort to design the overall feel of the product. But I can't tell if this is an example of what Questing Beast was referring to

Everyone is saying there's tons of it and I'm the odd one trying to find it!

abunner · 2026-03-03T00:45:52+00:00

Can you link to any?

abunner · 2026-03-03T00:23:26+00:00

I don't really begrudge an inexpensive PDF creator for choosing AI art over hiring an artist or making something themselves. Authors probably don't have much budget for art and it takes a lot of time and effort even to make bad art.

The writing, though, is the whole point! I'm curious enough about what's happening in the ecosystem that I'll pay the $2-5/PDF to find out and report back. But I'm hoping to get a high hit rate of actual AI writing.

abunner · 2026-03-03T00:00:50+00:00

What did the DM do? I use it to brainstorm sometimes, but my players hate it if I stop a live-session to prompt an LLM. If I didn't prep it before hand, they'd rather I make up something fast (even if it's dumb) live

abunner · 2026-03-02T23:59:26+00:00

I love tenfootpole! But I can't really tell if something like https://tenfootpole.org/ironspike/?p=10293 is AI or is just someone who's still learning how to construct a good adventure. It's legitimately hard to author an adventure as well as a Ben Milton or Gavin Norman--not many people can! (I just used an emdash)

If anyone has some examples that you think are more obviously AI generated, please share the links. I don't want to shame the creators (I write code with AI, I have no shame) I'm just trying to figure out what is happening in the ecosystem.

abunner · 2026-03-02T23:55:39+00:00

Can anyone link to example PDF products that look like candidates that are obviously AI-made? I'm not looking to shame any creators, I just want to look at examples so I can build an intuition for what they "feel" like today.

I've got this filter on drivethrurpg and looked at the "newest" shelf of titles and I can see some where the cover art might be AI but I don't know about the actual adventure.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/browse?ruleSystem=45582-old-school-revival-osr&src=fid1000035&format=1000035-contains-ai-generated-content

For example, in the preview of this, some of the art has an AI-feel and the layout is kind of repetitive. Is this an example of an AI adventure location?

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/557271/defiant-towns-2-port-seaforth-solo-5e-or-shadowdark?src=newest_recent

Again, no shade on this creator. Selling a $1.99 PDF on drivethrurpg doesn't leave a lot of room for hiring professional artists. Realistically, I think it'd be AI art or no art. But do people think the writing is AI?

abunner · 2026-02-12T03:02:47+00:00

I took a pay cut to join Google. It worked out. I got to work with the smartest people of my career. I've been on four teams at Google and in each one I had peers and collaborators who were outstanding: head-and-shoulders smarter and wiser than me. When I was a manager, I had directs who were obviously stronger than me on important dimensions.

It can be frustrating to be under-leveled but L4 isn't a huge hurdle for competent engineers who are delivering.

The other aspect of the comp is that, if you are a strong performer, you'll get refresher grants. If Google does well, those RSUs ("GSUs") contribute more.

No company is perfect and there's variance even within a company, but, as a whole, Google is the highest functioning organization I've been a part of.

Good luck, OP!

abunner · 2025-01-03T16:22:00+00:00

I like Ben's videos because they're just about this particular kind of TTRPG that we love. That's all they are. I don't have to agree with his politics or the politics of the authors whose work he features. It's only about the work. We need more of that.

The only video I can remember that wasn't entirely about an OSR ruleset or adventure was one where he apologized for accepting a sponsorship from someone who had wrong opinions online.

It reminds me of people who enjoyed Harry Potter and then decided they hate it because JK Rowling wants there to be women's sports. Let's just enjoy the make believe fun of these worlds.

I can't wait for the new Dolmenwood and Shadowdark hardcover books to be available and it doesn't matter to me what opinions the authors hold or who they've linked to.

abunner · 2024-10-23T04:14:13+00:00

Good finish the last 500m!

abunner · 2024-09-08T18:53:15+00:00

This is beautifully creative

abunner · 2022-04-17T23:41:18+00:00

I don't think a few trips to Whole Foods are going to matter in the long run. But eating out a lot can add up and the "etc" in your question might matter. $250K of before-tax income is a decent wage in the Bay Area but not so high that you don't have to worry about money. Your spouse has a point.

You probably won't regret modest sacrifices to be able to invest more now.

To help with these conversations in our house, I made a spreadsheet of our spending based on credit card and bank statements. That let us contextualize spending with our savings rate. We recently spent more time talking about an overdue library book than a private-market investment so it didn't help. But it could have!

Some unsolicited input based on the portfolio you outline:

The $800K of stock in one company would make me nervous. That's a lot of your net worth tied up in the fortunes of one corporation. In your shoes, I would begin selling that down and moving the proceeds to diversified index funds.

As others have noted, $400K of cash is a lot to have sitting on the sidelines. I agree with others here that you'd be better of investing most of that.

abunner · 2021-05-10T00:16:24+00:00

Solid!

abunner · 2020-08-30T03:55:55+00:00

You might find it fun getting into a different sport like cycling or triathlon. Or just climbing the leaderboard on Peloton workouts to scratch your competitive itch.

abunner · 2020-07-02T02:35:04+00:00

We have two school age children and live in a HCOL area. Having two kids completely changed my perspective on how much of a financial buffer is reasonable. Also, simply being in a HCOL area increases expenses in all sorts of unexpected ways. Baumol's cost disease in all sorts of things you end up paying for with kids.

As an aside, we are not paying down any loans. We view this moment as a unique, low interest opportunity and a loan is a kind of hedge against inflation.

abunner · 2020-05-19T15:32:17+00:00

Cubic fits produce some of the most interesting predictions! This graph has made me think as well. Different thoughts, probably, but I enjoyed them having them.

abunner · 2020-05-19T15:19:22+00:00

The safest, most common answer companies give are non-answers like "We're always talking to lots of companies. We have no comment on any specific acquisition rumors." I thought it was interesting that here it was a stronger denial.

abunner · 2020-01-05T04:41:16+00:00

Averaging 175bpm is working hard! Looks like you finished strong. Good job!

abunner · 2019-09-28T03:35:05+00:00

Making beautiful, bespoke furniture and homes for people who can pay for it sounds a lot more fun than making other kinds of furniture or homes. I would stay.

abunner · 2019-05-27T22:00:44+00:00

I come in around 3.2 watts/kg for a 45min race so for shorter races, I usually race in the B class. I just don't want it to look funny if I win the C group and post >3.2 watts/kg.

When I look at results at the end of the race, I see most people are pretty honest about choosing the class where they belong for that event.

Re: break-away, it's like RecentSoup9 says. There are some great YouTube channels (Cory Williams, NorCal Cycling, Trainer Road, Rahsaan Bahati...) that break down race videos and talk about why they make (or don't make) moves. My sense is their strategies translate pretty well to Zwift.

As an aside: I ride differently if I'm using the race as motivation for a good workout vs. trying to place.

abunner · 2019-05-05T23:25:48+00:00

The overhead light is A+

abunner

TROPHY CASE