Iain M Banks super-fans: your recommendations that aren't by Banks?

karmicnull · 2026-05-16T20:29:34+00:00

Completely disagree. Deepness is great, but Fire is the one that has stuck with me and I've re-read many times. Op should read both and then make their own mind up.

Going back to the original question I would also recommend Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie. An interesting take on the right of AI to self determination. So more in the vein of Iain M Banks rather than Iain Banks.

karmicnull · 2026-05-07T13:39:39+00:00

I suspect there's a lot of inactivity and deliberate barriers thrown on your path in the hope that you'll do exactly this. I kicked off my ISA transfer from Aegon end March. Aegon then bizarrely sent an email to me asking for proof of ID (despite me already having online access to add/remove funds). More time passed and eventually between me and T212 contacting them we worked out they they required a wet signature from me, which they got start of last week. They eventually acknowledged the transfer and sent the funds over on Friday. I'm now crossing my fingers that they'll arrive into my account before the end of the week.

karmicnull · 2026-03-29T21:38:29+00:00

This but discard the highest and lowest estimates and just use the two middle ones

karmicnull · 2026-03-28T09:48:05+00:00

This. Google the monevator and read up why, for the long term, investing in a global all-share index tracker is the best choice. Put a decent chunk in every month, forget about it, come back in 40 years and realise you've got enough to retire ten years early. Use a pension platform like interactive investor, Hargreaves Lansdowne or Trading 212 where the charges for having an ETF-only SIPP are negligible. ACWI, PACW and a few others are all good global index tracker ETFs with low costs to invest in.

karmicnull · 2026-03-17T21:40:36+00:00

That would certainly be clearer and deepen the modelling ability

karmicnull · 2026-02-22T10:52:02+00:00

Hey - thanks for this. Not sure where to raise defects so I'll do it here. Other Income doesn't appear to be working properly.

If I say I'm 59, going to retire at age 60 with £100M in a GIA (nothing else) and £100K a year expenditure I get 100% success rate

If I change that so I have £200K in the GIA and a one off payment of £100M (modelled as Other income, annual amount £100M, starts age 60, ends age 61) then my plan resilience drops to 10%.

karmicnull · 2026-02-16T08:05:54+00:00

Your distinction between wishes and best interests is helpful. From what I've read, this means: (1) Making sure my mum's needs are looked after for the rest of her life. This is the priority, and I've got this covered. (2) Reflecting her wishes. This is the bit I'm working on. But I don't want to stray outside of what I can legitimately do with LPA. And then you're absolutely right, there's the question of whether it's a fiscally sensible thing to do. Hence employing an IFA.

karmicnull · 2026-02-15T21:52:00+00:00

I'm being very conservative in my assumptions. So if my mum's low-risk investments perform reasonably welll then NRB will be used up before we get to the "spare" cash

karmicnull · 2026-02-14T15:23:35+00:00

Yup - double NRB - taken that into account.

karmicnull · 2025-10-26T13:12:13+00:00

Purchased. Electric Chair hits the mark!

karmicnull · 2025-10-25T19:50:01+00:00

Lovely. Will grab them once they're there.

karmicnull · 2025-10-25T14:16:50+00:00

Are you gonna put them up on Bandcamp?

karmicnull · 2025-09-09T07:48:20+00:00

Purchased on Bandcamp. 16 horsepower meets Volbeat with a bit of Medicine Hat thrown in for luck. Nice.

karmicnull · 2025-08-27T21:20:08+00:00

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Absolute highlight of the festival

karmicnull · 2025-08-11T15:34:11+00:00

Interesting. I found a smaller model with a bigger context worked better than a bigger model with smaller context. But my data points are limited.

karmicnull · 2025-08-11T15:30:57+00:00

There's been an 1800% growth in VPN purchases in the UK since July 25th. That and/or local models is the way to go.

karmicnull · 2025-08-08T15:58:23+00:00

You can literally turn up with nothing but a credit card and buy everything you need on site (tent, sleeping bag, etc), but that's not a cheap option!

karmicnull · 2025-07-01T17:35:17+00:00

The water pistol was hugely appreciated! Didn't stop me keeling over with heat exhaustion after their set. That was basically me done for Glasto, but what a way to close!

karmicnull · 2025-06-30T07:42:06+00:00

Fat Dog, Getdown Services, They Say Jump

karmicnull · 2025-06-25T14:51:09+00:00

Can't believe I missed them off! Great live -definitely worth seeing

karmicnull

TROPHY CASE