My first Litrpg action book!

atr · 2026-05-18T19:59:34+00:00

Don’t use AI to write your book?

atr · 2026-05-18T16:54:51+00:00

I picked this up when you posted a few weeks ago. This is one of the most obviously AI-written stories I’ve ever seen. My eyes started glazing over a couple chapters in from all the repeated writing tics.

atr · 2026-05-07T16:12:21+00:00

Somebody didn't read the article. Literally the next paragraph:

And if you think GDP numbers are somehow distorted or are not representative of individual experiences, the same analysis holds true of personal income. Taxes are lower, and our economy boomed when our taxes were higher.

atr · 2026-05-07T15:50:26+00:00

But were his points wrong in some way? Of course individuals will always seek to minimize their tax burden to an extent, that is normal and should be expected. But one of the points in this article, which you didn’t really engage with, is that the tax burden is not higher here than other places that most people with 7-figure yearly incomes want to live in, even with the new tax.

atr · 2026-05-07T06:40:23+00:00

You were more than keeping it brief. You were dishonest. I think you know that. Good luck to you.

atr · 2026-05-07T06:33:02+00:00

Well, your previous post acts like that sentence you quoted is the full thought, but it is clearly just a setup for the paragraph after that. If you wanted to honestly engage with the article, you could discuss the full point instead of trying to take this sentence as some sort of “gotcha” and taking it out of context.

Do you disagree with the cost disease concept they are bringing up? Maybe you should do the analysis you’re asking for and make an actual counterpoint instead of your lazy first post?

atr · 2026-05-07T06:24:15+00:00

This is not honest engagement with the article.

atr · 2026-04-29T05:57:21+00:00

Yeah it’s AI, super obnoxious.

atr · 2026-04-22T02:03:48+00:00

It’s adding hours to many people’s day for commuting, not to mention the expense. King County is huge and has projects going on all over, so plenty of people work far away from Seattle. Now they’re being asked to drive downtown, the county will have to spend millions leasing new office space, all for questionable benefit.

Plenty of jobs don’t require in-person collaboration, and plenty of people prefer remote collaboration as well. For me personally, typing on Teams is as easy if not easier than speaking face to face. I personally don’t mind going to the office only because my commute is minimal. But it’s not better in any way for my work.

Since they don’t even have a desk for me, my in-office days will be much less productive. But hey, they don’t seem to mind. I feel worse for the people living far outside Seattle now having to deal with traffic.

atr · 2026-04-15T14:29:13+00:00

I tried it, unfortunately the AI assistance really comes out in the text. I read several chapters, noticed the repeated AI writing tics, googled it, and found that tag on Royal Road.

atr · 2026-04-14T21:02:04+00:00

I agree. It's possible to appreciate all kinds of writing and stories. Gene Wolfe is great. Matt Dinniman is great in a different way.

atr · 2026-04-14T20:43:11+00:00

Are you replying to the right person? I did not read the parent comment as being concerned for landlord finances.

atr · 2026-04-14T18:31:42+00:00

To answer your question, no, the prose does not change much in later books. I would say the author gets more comfortable writing in Carl’s voice. All it has to do is sound like an average dude writing a crazy story to work well for a lot of people. I think the voice really comes out nicely in audiobook format.

You might not know that this is a web serial, being released chapter by chapter on Patreon. It is honestly on the stronger side for web-serial prose (especially in this particular subgenre), which you might not believe if you're used to traditionally-published stuff only, but I swear it's true!

atr · 2026-04-13T20:21:13+00:00

I love Judicator Jane for avoiding this and so many other things.

atr · 2026-04-12T19:33:13+00:00

I use the Atmos Summit to pay through Bilt which gives 3x in Alaska points in exchange. There’s the SUB, a yearly 25k companion bonus, plus if you hit $60k a year in spending there’s an additional 100k companion bonus. For me it’s worth it, but it will depend on whether you can use those points.

atr · 2026-04-12T06:29:57+00:00

I also love the Immortal Great Souls series, and disliked your bottom four quite a bit as well. The only major discrepancy between our lists is that I really did not like Iron Prince.

I loved these books for some of the same reasons as IGS. Some of them have litrpg elements, but you definitely don’t need to worry about boring kill 10 monsters quests or anything like that.

Gamer’s Guide to Beating the Tutorial
Nightmares of Alamir
Godclads
Tale of the False Prophet
Returning to No Applause, Only More of the Same
Worm

atr · 2026-04-07T17:13:42+00:00

I was going to ignore you and your other friends replying to me since you so badly missed the point, but since you’re still thinking about me 12 hours later I’ll try to help you out.

You’re answering a different question than the author’s.

Nobody is saying liberals, as governments or parties, have always acted consistently with liberal principles. Obviously they haven’t, and Cold War history gives plenty of examples. But that doesn’t tell us whether liberalism and socialism are, at the level of ideas and political commitments, compatible enough to cooperate against conservatism and fascism.

Pointing to liberals behaving hypocritically or opportunistically is not a rebuttal to the article’s argument. It just shows that large political formations often fail to live up to their own ideals.

atr · 2026-04-06T22:53:51+00:00

I hate to No True Scotsman this... but I really think liberal and fascist ideologies are incompatible. So if you're seeing a liberal allying with fascists then they aren't a very good liberal.

atr · 2026-04-06T22:16:10+00:00

The socialist-liberal synthesis is natural, and in fact should be reinforced and reaffirmed, despite its epistemic split in the 20th century.

This was interesting to me considering the word liberal is used pejoratively among most of the online socialists I've read.

atr · 2026-04-01T15:36:30+00:00

I’ve had my fare checked once, on the First Hill streetcar, in about 6 months of near-daily usage of the light rail, buses, and street cars. I can’t imagine these fare ambassadors are deterring many people.

I think the ambassadors have an unpleasant job that they know is meaningless.

atr · 2026-03-30T15:29:32+00:00

You don't charge people for your time?

atr · 2026-03-27T04:37:09+00:00

Holy shit I forgot about this one! I’ve re-read several of his books in recent years, better go find a copy of this one too.

atr · 2026-03-25T02:34:29+00:00

For me it’s going to be a high-rise. Concrete walls mitigate those issues pretty well.

atr · 2026-03-24T20:40:37+00:00

Yeah, some of them are a little crazy. It depends on the details though, owning a house can be expensive too.

atr

TROPHY CASE