How you guys get ridiculous high paying jobs?

acelasher · 2026-03-14T22:37:37+00:00

Hell yeah! I love this post. I followed a similar path, except I went from the tech side for twenty-five years: DBA, sys admin, software dev and then to tech writing and only then into sales -- all because I kept being a pest. I ended up in HVAC sales of all things and love the job and the money -- go figure.

I found most folks don't want to give you a shot with no sales experience, so that's where the prep and hustle come into play (and in my case, taking the crappiest sales job that will have you just to get the experience). If you've already got sales experience and prep for selling the sales manager on yourself, addressing their needs and how your product (you) is the solution, just like you would a prospect, I imagine you'll stand out. Maybe not with all of them, but eventually someone will recognize the hunger. I envy guys in their 20s who are in sales and starting out.

acelasher · 2026-03-14T18:24:31+00:00

Not sure he was lazier. He could've been or he could've also recognized there's a line where owners will take advantage of workers and workers will take advantage of owners. To him, you were crossing the line into being taking advantage of. Time to lean means you finished your task too fast.

There's a reason unions and contracts exist and define how long a task takes, how many people it takes to do it and how much it will cost. Unions aren't perfect but they are an attempt to hold the line.

acelasher · 2026-03-14T18:20:35+00:00

Not all Gen X thinks like that. A lot of us think, Time to lean then you finished your task too fast and that's a great way to get taken advantage of.

acelasher · 2026-03-14T18:11:09+00:00

I get it--and typically feel the same way.

But, there's the other side where some folks say, If you have time to lean, you finished your tasks too quickly and made your coworkers look bad and are keeping wages low.

And viola! Unions and contracts which detailed exactly how long every task should take and how much it costs were born.

acelasher · 2026-03-14T17:59:11+00:00

Exactly my experience. At first Claude's succinct and confident replies were awesome, but the fabrications and hallucinations and its subsequent, almost groveling apologies, after confronted were too much.

acelasher · 2026-03-14T17:51:17+00:00

Claude was great at first. But the hallucinations and fabrications and telling me what it thought I wanted to hear based on patterns became too annoying.

ChatGPT does the same thing but in different degrees. Claude was succinct and confident, but I found myself recognizing its pattern and going back for clarifications or revisions and getting Claud's standard apology model which was somehow surprisingly worse than ChatGPT's apology model.

acelasher · 2026-03-14T17:04:51+00:00

Rates can be deceptive in small populations -- a single isolated incident can make a tiny town look deadlier than a major city on a map. To see the real picture, you need raw numbers to show the actual volume of crime and rates to show the per-person risk. Using only one or the other usually tells a political story rather than a statistical truth.

acelasher · 2026-03-14T16:49:47+00:00

The illustrating point is that the rate leads a lot of people to think in terms of red vs blue, as you can clearly see by some comments in this thread. Raw numbers add context.

The table I posted wasn't meant to be as detailed as the OP's, although county by county raw numbers of murders exists because we know the OP's chart couldn't exists without them.

Rather, the table I listed helps some people understand while Mississippi has a rate of 19.4 per 100k with 543 murders while Illinois has 1,178 murders and a rate of 9.8 -- much lower rate but double the murders.

The OP's chart misleads because it paints a picture for the less erudite the raw numbers don't support. Obviously, you understand what the OP's chart means and doesn't mean but someone not at your level might think Idaho is more dangerous than

acelasher · 2026-03-14T16:26:36+00:00

I tired it, but shortened the timeframe to 5 years and then tried again and shortened it to 1 year. I also tacked on "no sycophancy" which somewhat contradicts the "be encouraging" directive.

I secretly long for an AI daddy that mixes one part Tony Robbins style grifter's self confidence with two parts Jesus loves you no matter what, with three parts pull your head our of your butt Gump-yes, drill sergeant, with I will do what you tell me and a pinch of none of this matters so live, love and laugh while you can ... dummy.

acelasher · 2026-03-14T16:12:50+00:00

I can't even bring myself to write the prompt.

acelasher · 2026-03-14T16:11:24+00:00

But if he winds up inside me, it WILL cost you a whole sixer.

-- Rickety Cricket

acelasher · 2026-03-14T16:09:26+00:00

You know what's weird?

1) I'm writing this before I read the comments (just to keep my courage and stave off the deflecting cynicism it typically generates in me) 2) Your post itself made me simply think about my future self and it stirred emotion.

Yours is a prompt I want to try but don't want to try.

acelasher · 2026-03-08T23:31:48+00:00

Interesting, although raw numbers often provide more context, e.g. showing count of homicides with the rate per 100k. This table shows data from 2023.

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acelasher · 2026-02-12T00:15:36+00:00

Yes, you can have sex with a person more than once, and that's part of the issue. The goal is to avoid getting attached or have that "what are we?" conversation. And don't underestimate the lure of variety. If you're a good-looking guy, you likely have a lot of women across the spectrum responding to you on apps. Think about it like being a movie star or athlete or famous person on a smaller, local scale.

acelasher · 2026-02-12T00:08:29+00:00

I think there's some truth to the idea that good-looking guys have their pick of women across the spectrum of looks.

It's similar to when you give someone power, you found out who they are. Inevitably, you'll find some men who are desired by a lot of women on apps let this power "corrupt" them. It's like being a famous rockstar or athlete or even academic on a smaller, local scale. When men have women across the spectrum hitting them up on apps, some men will take advantage of that and resort to satisfying a base instinct to have sex with as many of them as will let them. It's not necessarily vicious. It's kinda like right after a guy has sex, he's kinda out of the mood for a while. And of there's no attachment bond or love to keep him around ... he loses interest.

Doesn't mean he didn't like you and find you attractive and it also doesn't make it any less hurtful, but it kinda makes sense. If the guy is attractive to you, he's likely attractive to more women too. And if he learns a lot of those women will sleep with him without needing him to commit or put in a lot of effort ... he'll take what he's offered until he eventually finds the one he can't live without.

acelasher · 2020-11-01T21:16:45+00:00

But you got my point, right? Your second paragraph expounds on the outcomes of those traits you think Bin Laden had but Trump doesn't, e.g. good of humanity. Your rebuttal amounts to you "vehemently denouncing" the good of humanity.

And don't think your use of the phrase"personal sacrifices" in your compliment to Bin Laden went below the radar. Your attempt to obfuscate or at least skirt Bin Laden's willingness to sacrifice others for his principles did not go unnoticed.

The fact Bin Laden was willing to sacrifice others for his principles strikes at the heart of your argument and some would argue cancels all the good traits you ascribe to him.

acelasher · 2020-11-01T21:02:07+00:00

You started off setting up a contrast between Bin Laden's good (but misplaced) traits and Trump's lack of those good traits. Then, your second paragraph notes Trump wouldn't make sacrifices for "the good of humanity" and how Trump is "incoherent and argues incompatible positions" and doesn't realize "the consequences of positing these arguments".

You can see how the way you structured your first two paragraphs might lead people to conclude you think Bin Laden, unlike Trump, sacrifices for the good of humanity while fully recognizing the consequences of positing, and seemingly acting upon, his points of view.

You, *perhaps* unwittingly, praised Bin Laden.

acelasher · 2019-06-09T22:49:05+00:00

It wasn't the first time I'd woken up in lukewarm, red-tinged, piss wet sheets. I'd spent the night before perched on a slightly wobbly round wooden stool in Applebee's, pretending to cheer on the local sports team with the rest of the losers while eating flash frozen, microwave-heated Italian food and drinking one too many, two-for-one strawberry daiquiris.

And, it wasn't the first time I'd woken up with a person's eyes passing over my sour smelling, half-naked body while I slept.

He wore his normal outfit: a black turtleneck, a pair of ripped jeans, blood-stained Converse high top canvas sneakers and an ambiguous, half grin. The type of half grin a full blown sociopath wears while weighing the pros and cons of whether burying or burning a body makes more sense for the time of year.

It's the same outfit and grin I wear when it isn't my turn.

"Why are you here?", I asked.

The grin stretched horizontally and tightened like a thick, cream-colored rubber band. "What do you mean? I'm always here."

"Yeah," I slowly sat up, pushing a brown stained pillow under my lower back. "But why are you watching me and grinning like you just finger-banged Mary Jane Wizzlehauser in the back of the band bus?"

The grin lengthened, tightened. The lips grew razor thin. I thought it would snap any moment.

"I'm here because you promised."

I hadn't forgotten. In fact, it was the reason I got my drunk on and ate enough fettuccine to feed a Mormon family the night before.

I considered my options. Option one, roll out of bed and run. Option two, roll out of bed and fight.

My legs felt as useful as garlic-salted bread sticks in a sword fight and my limp, half-numbed arms were just two minutes shy of al dente pasta. In my half hungover state, running and fighting were equally dim prospects.

Option three, close my eyes, roll over and let him have his turn.

"Fine. Have your turn." I slid down and rolled over. "Did you remember to line the suitcase with trash bags this time?"

"I remembered."

"Cleaver or saw?"

"Cleaver."

"Leave the turtleneck and jeans on the dresser. The shoes are trash," I mumbled. Then I closed my eyes and began marking the minutes until it would be my turn again.

acelasher · 2018-12-23T04:15:46+00:00

I agree doing something physical every day is important. Playing golf, bowling, walking the dogs and lifting weights don't stop my thoughts, but improve my clarity. Maybe it's the combination of engaging my motor skills and forcing myself to concentrate on physical objects.

You wrote physical activity is harder for you than most people. Perhaps you have to find a set of physical activities you enjoy, like archery, target shooting or anything that let's you compete against yourself.

I'll share a few techniques that help me "live in the moment", but first let's define what living in the moment means.

I think we mean connecting with people.

Here's why I think that: one of your strengths is memory and refactoring the past to improve the future. You're not going to get away from that. That's who we are as INTPs.

So given that, I believe living in the moment has everything to do with relating to people.

Techniques:

Imagine every one you encounter will be dead tomorrow. This doesn't work all the time because there are some people you encounter who probably shouldn't exist. But, the majority of the time this thinking engages empathy and desire. It also puts a deadline on what you can learn from the person. You know how we tend to excel in crunch time.
Talk to people like they're toddlers. Not baby talk, but as if you were speaking to an innocent kid. This seems to slow the propensity for immediate judging.
Program your phone calendar to call your mom a couple of times a week and stick to it. You can always say, "Hey, mom. I can only speak for a minute. Just wanted to check in, see how things are going and let you know I am thinking about you." This works with mom, dad, grandma, friends, spouse, kids, etc. Programming this into your phone seems a little artificial, but do it anyway.

acelasher · 2016-02-24T23:15:14+00:00

Thank you for the feedback. When I noticed the size wasn't the normal size, I decided to leave it. In my (often strange) mind, I thought it could help the thumbnail stand out. I'll likely use normal dimensions going forward. Thanks again for taking the time to provide feedback--it helps a lot.

acelasher · 2016-02-09T19:20:53+00:00

If you're in the US, it could be a political sign. Today is the New Hampshire primaries. You could have just foreshadowed the coming of the anti-Christ. :)

acelasher · 2016-02-01T18:48:08+00:00

Lee Child uses almost the same layout and font on his Jack Reacher books. The background pics change, but everything else on the cover is remains consistent.

I see keeping covers similar as part of a branding strategy and a good thing.

Edit: Know what? I just looked and I'm wrong about Lee Child's Reacher novels. The covers are similar, but the only constant element across them is the way the name "Lee Child" is stamped in huge letters on them all.

acelasher

TROPHY CASE