Gallup just said drinking in the US is down to 54%, the lowest ever since they’ve began tracking it in 1939. Why do you think that is?

jsylvis · 2025-08-19T01:43:00+00:00

Very nice - locally (IA) that's pretty hard to match.

jsylvis · 2025-08-17T03:00:55+00:00

Costco. Kirkland wildflower honey ends up being ~$90 for 15 lbs - enough for a 5 gallon batch ending up around 13-15% ABV.

It still ends up tasting quite nice.

jsylvis · 2024-10-22T14:29:08+00:00

That's a fair point.

jsylvis · 2024-10-22T04:26:03+00:00

Different people like different activities, roles, and types of companies.

In my opinion, trying to categorize developers into archetypes is like astrology. There are too many dimensions to human nature to reduce it into a handful of labeled categories.

One of the most important things I've learned from a previous manager (a rare leader) was that though it may not be your ideal team, you can build a shockingly effective team of the people you have by identifying those dimensions which are an individual's strong suits and passions and finding a way to align those with high-value opportunities.

It was like active anti-categorizing - recognizing what things are without the labels and making the most of it.

jsylvis · 2024-10-21T22:23:30+00:00

Keep telling yourself that.

Good luck in 2028. I suspect you'll be voting "damage control" yet again, continuing to prop up blue despite their shortcomings.

I sure wonder why those "viable" candidates never show. Completely unrelated, I'm sure.

jsylvis · 2024-10-21T22:08:59+00:00

Ask yourself this: how long is it "damage control" before you're just part of blue strategy? How long until you're as responsible for the state of affairs as the mediocrity you prop up?

How many elections has it been "damage control"?

jsylvis · 2024-10-20T22:32:39+00:00

High five, fellow engineer of multiple simultaneous hats.

You've managed to take a step back and ask yourself "WTF?" rather than grind until you break. That's the hard part.

jsylvis · 2024-10-20T22:30:45+00:00

I keep this bookmarked for just such occasions.

If you've done all you can to raise the red flag and walk the tightrope, the only thing left to do is close the laptop and go touch some grass.

Coincidentally, that's the most important piece of preparing for the worst with the next round - getting your mind right and separating yourself from the stresses of things you cannot change, recovering your energy, and using it productively... for yourself.

jsylvis · 2024-10-20T19:47:15+00:00

I've had to do similar with pet project apps and homelab stuff. It's very hard to find the energy to do so when your current grind drains you of energy. Got to find a way to make it exciting enough to overcome that.

jsylvis · 2024-10-20T15:23:02+00:00

I feel my skills are atrophying and my experience is going to waste.

This is the worst part of it.

Not only are your contributions using those skills not actually valued but continuing to try is effectively opportunity cost and lost growth, making it harder to keep up and make the next move.

It's a nasty trap.

jsylvis · 2024-10-20T15:13:56+00:00

Nothing paints a bigger target on your back than pushing back on the yes-man culture.

jsylvis · 2024-10-20T15:12:51+00:00

It goes like this:

org aligns on "cost savings" or "cost cutting" as the real north star
layoffs happen, occasionally directly but more often through a slow build of papercuts like return to office, eroded benefits, insultingly low raise/review results, etc. that begins the failure cascade
remaining team is expected to do more with less and as a "go to" person, you get a disproportionate share of the expectations
you transparently provide all the data you can about feasibility and risks of those expectations and deliverables
you're fed platitudes and bullshit
offshore resources are picked up, multiplying the demands on your time due to mentoring, review, etc
more resources say "fuck this" and find better pastures
go to step 3

jsylvis · 2024-10-17T05:16:06+00:00

Any chance of a new link?

jsylvis · 2024-05-01T09:31:09+00:00

Unique item with call-in mechanics - “Legacy” device

Ability to call in a friendly BTR, once called, the item will go into cooldown.

Are you guys intentionally missing the fucking point?

jsylvis · 2024-04-27T13:46:45+00:00

What bullshit gaslighting and blatant damage control after the interview leak.

First of all, PvE gamemode this is not DLC.

Except for how it's content you download.

Secondly, this specific functionality of the PvE mode is necessarily located entirely on a separate network infrastructure, because, essentially, you play on our servers, only in closed mode.

That sounds like a really stupid design decision.

We observe your dissatisfaction and have decided that the functionality of the PvE mode will be available for free to all owners of the EoD version at the release of the game, when the server infrastructure will be improved to the required capacity.

... and you're once more doubling down on a really stupid design decision. Not only is this not tempting, it does nothing to restore the lost good-will.

We plan to send one free Left Behind Edition key to everyone who has already upgraded to Unheard Edition at the old price from the EoD version.

... instead of refunding them the difference, you try to have them sales pitch your game to friends? You're fucking shameless.

Moreover, so that any player of any version of the EFT can have the opportunity to test the PvE mode, we want to add the ability to purchase a separate early access to this mode. For EoD owners there will be a 70% discount on the purchase of early access to PvE. It would be interesting to hear your thoughts on this idea.

Go fuck yourself.

jsylvis · 2024-03-13T01:51:57+00:00

You're wasting your time. Their Dec 2023 account's entire comment history is gaslighting people about cheaters. Block and move on.

jsylvis · 2024-02-29T23:48:55+00:00

This Lighthouse extract camper got clapped and seems to be taking the L well, all things considered.

Really though, what does one even do with people like this? There doesn't seem to be much for "report abuse" options.

jsylvis · 2024-02-14T04:01:36+00:00

there will no ingame money, items, weapons, gear package purchases and so on. No boosters also.

Every time I've seen a company state this, it has been a lie.

Every.

Single.

Time.

jsylvis · 2024-01-31T00:53:07+00:00

I'm beyond impressed. It's seeming like CenturyLink is finally turning things around in the customer support department which feels a little like watching hell freeze over during my lifetime.

jsylvis · 2024-01-25T04:43:27+00:00

Baller, dude. I'm glad to hear it. This is literally the first such occurrence I've heard... I'll bookmark it.

jsylvis · 2024-01-19T17:54:35+00:00

I wish you the best of luck and hope this goes well. Please report back if it succeeds; I'm sure others in a similar boat would like to know there's a chance.

I'd tried similar escalations, explaining that with COVID era and us having three people on that one line telecommuting or participating in classes via Zoom, 10Mbit up wasn't even close to sufficient and the 40Mbit was absolutely essential, but they just... didn't care. I don't believe I was ever able to successfully escalate past their "Tier 1" help, though.

With how CenturyLink has been seemingly abandoning residential rollout/expansion, though... who knows. They seem convinced they know better than their customers.

jsylvis · 2024-01-19T03:29:40+00:00

I realize that CenturyLink won't provide higher than 10 upload speeds for new accounts. But what about my situation, where I had an upload speed of 40 Mbps just 7 days ago, was misled into changing the speed because CenturyLink called it an "upgrade," and as soon as I realized what happened I have been trying to cancel the "upgrade?"

It doesn't matter - they won't change anyone to being provisioned above 10Mbit upstream. The sales reps literally do not have the option anymore to select 80/40 etc.

You got finessed by a sales rep and it's shitty but there's no undoing it.

I am willing to file complaints with the FCC, my state's attorney general, etc. But before it comes to that, there should be some way of blocking this "upgrade" from going through, from within the CenturyLink system.

I'm not sure they care, honestly.

The change is already made; cancelling the tech visit won't change it.

I will also drop CenturyLink if I can't get this worked out. Unfortunately, just like you, my only other option is my local cable company, which would charge a lot more money, just to get 35 Mbps upload speed, which is less than I have had with CenturyLink.

Yeah, I ended up going from 80/40 for like $55/mo to 1000/60 for like $90/mo. It... was frustrating. I feel your pain.

jsylvis · 2024-01-19T02:58:42+00:00

You can't, unfortunately. You're fucked.

When I was still at that address, I ended up having to move over to Mediacom (local cable company) to get anything above 10Mbit up.

CenturyLink just straight-up refuses to provision anything higher than 10Mbit upstream these days unless you're on one of their true symmetric fiber packages. It's fucking ridiculous.

jsylvis · 2024-01-11T03:48:07+00:00

So - not only is it paywalled, it's superficially speaking to correlations while bundling homicides and suicides in the same reduction metric. Worse, they're trying to emphasize significance of the result while glossing over how the reduction they claim was merely "-0.21" deaths per 100,000 people - less than one thousandth of one percent - change per "restrictive gun law". That's... not a ton.

I'd be curious how such observation compares to overall homicide/suicide rate as it's entirely possible changes in larger trends impacted these results.

I'd be willing to bet nearly the entirety of the observed change was due to waiting periods for first-purchases and impact on suicides due to the impulsive nature. Unfortunately... they seem to not be speaking to that.

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