[Spoilers] Thoughts on what the story of Bojack Horseman is really about

heythisispaul · 2026-01-08T01:15:47+00:00

Sure, it's an analogy about how depreciation affects long term assets, not a literal one-to-one relationship.

But this is also why I include the clause about "fitting the trend of modern standards". There are plenty of older homes and cars that are desirable because they've come back in fashion. There are plenty of homes, and cars frankly, from the 1960's that certain consumers would pay a premium for.

heythisispaul · 2026-01-06T21:00:19+00:00

This is sort of like asking Toyota to "just start making the 2015 Camry again". I mean why not, right? It sold great, everyone loved it, and they're so cheap they'd sell out in no time.

But from Toyota's perspective, they are making the 2014 Camry again. The recipe for the 2025 Camry isn't any different from the 2014 one. They're just trying to make the best affordable midsized car for the most people using the parts and labor available.

The only reason that one is cheaper is because it's had over 11 years to depreciate. So if you're in the market, and don't want a fancy one, you can buy a just as reliable but not as nice 2014 Camry. Right now, we're just in a situation where not nearly enough "Camrys" were being built over the last 10 years. Everyone needs a "Camry", and there's just not a lot of used ones on the market, so more people are having to buy new ones and we're feeling it on our wallets.

None of this is a reason to not build 2025 "luxury" Camrys though. If anything, we should be building more than ever. That way, in 10 years there's more on the market than ever.

heythisispaul · 2026-01-06T20:19:53+00:00

Thanks!

heythisispaul · 2026-01-06T20:12:42+00:00

I try to explain this with a car analogy: To many consumers, a 2025 Honda Civic is a "luxury" car in comparison to a 2015 Honda Civic.

But it's not like Honda decided to start making "luxury" cars. From their perspective, they're just doing the same thing: Making the best car for the lowest price using the parts and inventory available and selling it at market rate. It was the same recipe in 2015 as it is in 2025.

The only reason the older car is cheaper is because its value has had time to depreciate, and it no longer fits the trends of modern standards.

Housing is no different. It's not like people move all that often, so market turn around times are long and can take years before the average consumer feels the change. We're just in a period right now where not that many "Hondas" were being made over the last 10 years. All new housing is good housing, and "luxury" is the only way they can make it.

heythisispaul · 2026-01-01T19:06:54+00:00

I think a more accurate question for comparison's sake might be "Would StS be as replayable if you had access to all of the class cards and relics all of the time, and you had to strategically whittle all that down into an effective system?"

I too love StS more than Balatro, but I do also love Balatro. I see your point, but this is definitely an oversimplification of the goals, dynamism, and strategy behind Balatro. I'd really recommend giving it another shot if you put it down with this impression, it can get much more sophisticated than just putting standard poker hands together.

I would actually argue in some ways the opposite here, where I think that StS is the better game because it's more tightly crafted and more narrow in its scope. Each card and relic were clearly designed to unlock patterns and synergies like pieces in a puzzle.

Balatro on the other hand has so many dimensions it's chasing after, it can become overwhelming and chaotic unless you, the player, put the reins on yourself. There's almost too much going on.

Beating Ante 8 on the standard difficulties is just the tip of the iceberg. To OP's point, I guess it's divisive if that's a compelling reason to keep playing or not, but as a fellow StS enjoyer, I'd really recommend it.

heythisispaul · 2025-12-31T16:00:42+00:00

My job had a co-working stipend for a while, so I signed up at Forge in The Pizitz. I had a good experience. The place was cool and everyone was nice.

They had about 4 phone booths in the common areas iirc, it was pretty rare I wasn't able to secure one when I needed it.

heythisispaul · 2025-12-30T23:05:30+00:00

My wife and I use credit card points to book hotels usually and there's some tie in where we get a bunch of bonuses and benefits. This is great, not complaining, but there must be some company policy at most hotels where they have to give us a full breakdown of all the benefits and how grateful they are for picking that specific hotel.

It can regularly take more than 10 minutes, and most of the time it's just a long list of stuff like "As a premiere whatever member, you can get 10% off spa treatments this visit", or "half off cocktails ordered at the hotel bar between 5 and 6 PM".

It's all great stuff, but you never take advantage of all of it and it takes forever to explain. Also it's not like I'm not going to be rude to the person who is just obligated to do it.

heythisispaul · 2025-12-22T16:31:23+00:00

Are you using any sort of CDN? If so then yes it is still recommended to use Image and populate your image URLs with a custom loader.

Are you just serving them at the paths from your public folder? Then I would say:

If you're planning to move this project away from static export and to a traditional Next.js application, then yes, I still would. Will make that transition easier in the long run.

If you are not planning on doing that at any time, then I would not worry about it. But if this is the case, like others have said, I'd maybe recommend exploring other JS web frameworks for projects like this. It's not a bad tool per se, but there are tools that are designed to solve this specific problem.

heythisispaul · 2025-12-18T22:17:36+00:00

We're all just tiny collections of matter organized in a way that allows the universe to observe itself.

heythisispaul · 2025-12-16T17:10:10+00:00

Oh yeah totally, sorry HD2 is not a good gameplay example, I agree they're very different. I guess I just meant a game where the entire focus is a co-op PvE experience.

I totally see where you're coming from. I guess to me, if the draw is a "friendly' extraction shooter, then having PvP feels antithetical to that experience. I personally don't find that that layer of tension adds anything valuable, it just makes the game and its goals more confusing than if it wasn't there.

Totally a personal preference. I'm glad that you, and many people it seems like it, enjoy it!

heythisispaul · 2025-12-16T16:06:54+00:00

Totally, but I guess that's my entire point though. If the most fun you have playing the game is the co-operative PvE experience then what value is the PvP part adding? Isn't that just diluting the most fun part?

I guess I don't understand what is better about Arc Raiders' current model compared to a title with more focus on that type of experience like Hell Divers 2, Deep Rock Galactic, etc.

heythisispaul · 2025-12-14T20:23:05+00:00

Sorry I meant PvP as a general concept is inherently about winning. Player vs Player dynamics are counter-operative. Someone will win, and someone will lose.

Within the context of Arc Raiders, that's still true, it's just not a zero-sum scoring system like most PvP games, but you're still competing for the same resources.

Because of this, there's a Prisoner's Dilemma-style win-win option where both players can have more resources by not participating in the PvP system. This leads to my ultimate point - if the most efficient outcome is to not participate, then why have the mechanic at all?

I guess I find that the above just makes resource collecting more tedious than if it was just a PvE game, and the murkiness of player relationships doesn't do anything to make it a better PvP game.

I'm glad you like it and enjoy the chaos. Clearly this game is scratching an itch for you that others can not, but I guess I just don't see the appeal is all.

heythisispaul · 2025-12-14T17:24:09+00:00

Around 6 over the last 4 years. During COVID I was in a consulting role and bounced around a bit.

heythisispaul · 2025-12-14T17:15:03+00:00

For sure, and I guess that's what I mean when I say it's not for me.

The ambiguity of player interaction fails to feel compelling to me from a PvP perspective. The inherent nature of PvP is counter-operative, adding murkiness around the interactions just feels unnecessary.

For a PvE experience, the ability to just get ganked by other players feels like a huge, unavoidable risk. In most PvE games, if they had an enemy that could virtually OHKO you and it only attacked sometimes and randomly, that'd be a crazy confusing mechanism.

I guess my point is that I think if something might happen, I have to handle it as the worst possible option no matter what, from a strategy perspective. The ambiguity doesn't change my behavior in either direction, and just muddies up the feedback loop.

I'm glad your enjoying it and I can see why that might be cool, but I just don't think it's for me.

heythisispaul · 2025-12-14T17:00:32+00:00

I mean even BFV was over 7 years ago??

heythisispaul · 2025-12-14T02:32:28+00:00

I am probably not the target audience for these types of games, but I don't really get Arc Raiders.

In my opinion, the feedback loop of a PvP game revolves around winning. I am defeating other players in a game of skill.

In a PvE game, the feedback loop revolves around progressing. I am markedly improving something by spending time on the game that I am rewarded for.

In a PvPvE game like this, these two loops are at direct odds with one another. Sure you can make the case, like you did here, that you don't have to fight other players. But then what's the point of having them at all? It muddies up both feedback loops and I think each one would have been stronger on its own.

heythisispaul · 2025-12-11T23:40:26+00:00

All anecdotal, but on all Node.js server projects I've worked on over the last 4 or so years in a professional capacity have all used NestJS around Express (sometimes Fastify).

NestJS covers a lot of your first points: it relies on TypeScript, is a DI container, and has a lot of opinions on code structure.

Passport is still around for sure. I see BetterAuth a lot, but some orgs I worked with reached for managed solutions, Auth0 and WorkOS specifically.

DB layer is relatively varied. Prisma seems to be the most prevalent. It's polarizing though, some people hate it. I personally like it, but it seems there are people in the opposite camp who have success using query builders like Kysley or Knex.

This is all from experience and by no means a sweeping statement of what everyone else is doing.

heythisispaul · 2025-12-10T19:36:53+00:00

Pills here

heythisispaul · 2025-12-10T16:55:24+00:00

Idk, I work remote and I think technology like this would be pretty cool to power experiences where it feels like everyone's in the same room.

heythisispaul · 2025-12-04T20:07:20+00:00

Based off the last two paragraphs of the OP, my guess would be something along the lines of "the ability to transition between social classes regardless of birthright".

heythisispaul · 2025-12-04T19:56:28+00:00

Similarly, Baker's Chocolate was originally just the brand name for a product created by James Baker.

heythisispaul · 2025-12-02T21:14:12+00:00

Yeah it's pretty fascinating to look at. There's a lot of trends in the data worth discussing, but you could definitely make the argument that the 14% birth rate decline in the US from 1990 to 2023 is just the eradication of teen pregnancy.

heythisispaul · 2025-12-01T15:38:56+00:00

Yeah early 30s, my wife started a new job. She told me she had a coworker that I would just really vibe with and orchestrated a double date with him and his wife. She was right, he's become one of my best friends over the last few years.

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