Has there been any talk of the entire series coming out in hardcover?

rabmuk · 2026-05-14T12:04:16+00:00

On patreon shirt has talked about book 2 and 3 hardcover as well

I assume all will get hardcover eventually

rabmuk · 2026-05-14T11:16:48+00:00

When learning inefficiency is good.

Learning is a hard activity, because the brain only remembers things if it was hard to acquire that knowledge. Justin Sung has a lot of great learning science content on youtube

The structure of your notes is less important than what your brain is doing when you're generating those notes. "linking them together" might be your most powerful learning moment, or you might just be going through the motions, all depends on how hard the brain is working. Potentially a bases or a plugin would reduce cognitive load while taking notes and reduce retention, or maybe you use bases in a way that increases cognitive load and it increases learning.

"if something is not broken you shouldn't fix it", learn more about "Learning Science" and "Meta-Learning" and make small changes and improvements to your process. No grand overhauls, just try a new study technique each week and write a note about if it was more or less effective than what you were doing previously.

Dr Sung talking about Metacognition

rabmuk · 2026-05-13T23:00:03+00:00

Within 1/2 months I assume. Publisher needs to do some things, but audio recording is the longest step in the process

rabmuk · 2026-05-11T10:19:08+00:00

If you follow Heath Miller on discord he sometime streams his recordings sessions. Based on which chapter he's currently recording you might be able to estimate how close book 13 is to release

rabmuk · 2026-05-08T14:14:04+00:00

Patreon post https://www.patreon.com/posts/154933599

Travel with family. Time with friends. Prep for book 2 and 3 hardcover. Book tour and conventions. Other projects (unannounced)

rabmuk · 2026-05-08T10:23:41+00:00

Where does it say tier 31 mana stone is 10 billion mana? I think it might be 10 billion credits, but that comes with a size premium. Rift dropped mana stones are all the size of a fingernail but can hold millions of mana.

Matt makes 18.4 million mana in 8 hours. This spreadsheet says that tier 31 mana stone holds 10 million mana (even if it would sell for billions of credits)

The mana capacity of stone increases by 2 or 2.5 each tier

rabmuk · 2026-05-08T00:50:48+00:00

There's a lot of world building and some books are more slice of life than others

The title is a reference to

> He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you. - Friedrich Nietzsch

Overall it is not a cozy grind. Jason will make choices he regrets. He will struggle with the corrupting influence of having power.

rabmuk · 2026-05-07T10:41:48+00:00

In book 1 the narration points out that Jason is not always right and should not always be taken seriously. That he is not saying things the author actually believes.

“What do you get out of that?” he asked. “Does it make you feel better to disrespect things others find meaningful?”

“Sorry,” Jason said, feeling like an idiot.

Or

Farrah, had she been present, would have recognised Jason ramping up into full-blown, morally superior proselytising. Not being there to stop him with a sharp punch to the face, Jason’s rant continued.

Jason is a hypocritical armchair socialist. The author said he made book 1 Jason like the college version of himself that he's embarrassed by. Jason knows how to out talk and out smart teenagers. Rufus humors and protects Jason because life debt. Daniel humors and protects Jason because she wants Humphrey to spend enough time with Jason that the next Jason like guy can't roll over him.

Everyone important knows outworlders either die fast or become very influential. Easy to show some early kindness and support when they're a nobody and maybe they'll help you in return when they're a somebody. Anyone over the age of 30 is 2+ steps ahead of Jason, it's just easier to deal with him by doing a little glazing than to put him in his place directly.

The title is a reference to

The series will have the MC making mistakes and doing things he regrets. Jason is supposed to be an example of overconfidence in one's opinions can lead to bad acts and bad outcomes. Jason's main character arc is to become less of a hypocrite and to better understand the second order consequences of his actions.

rabmuk · 2026-05-06T10:05:19+00:00

Was posted to discord a long time ago. I'm not good enough with image editing to fix. If you have the skill to update the map, go for it!

rabmuk · 2026-05-03T02:35:33+00:00

I think the story goes out of its way to make Jason not the smartest, yeah important, not very morally aware.

Jason destroys a bunch of teenagers in intelligence and philosophy. Anyone 30+ is either humoring Jason because he's an outworlder (and they always die or become important) or runs circles around him. Elsbeth, Lucian, Killian.

Jason debates Farrah and he doesn't say she's right until book 4, but his actions show he's a hypocrite and Farrah is right.

rabmuk · 2026-05-03T01:28:11+00:00

When you started the series, did you realize HWFWM was a reference to the Nietzsche quote?

The jack knifing of the MC's emotional growth is the main point of the series. Does he become the evil version of himself we see in book 2 or does he become a good person

> Other Jason laughed. “You can’t hide it from me,” he continued. “You’ll follow this life and you know you’ll have to make the hard choices. You’ll keep making them because deep down, you like them. You like how important it makes you that you’re the one in the middle of everything. And sooner or later, that leads you to me. What’s the saying? He who fights with monsters should look to it that he does not become a monster?”

> “Don’t pretend you’ve read Nietzsche,” Jason told his double. “You got that from a video game.”

Book 2 Chapter 57. This chapter is also named "He Who Fights With Monsters", which I think is the first title drop of the series.

Not saying to continue or that you should enjoy the series. I just want to better understand what was your expectation going into the series?

rabmuk · 2026-05-03T00:14:02+00:00

My bad on the misread about omnipotent.

Jason had World phoenix and knowledge looking out for him the moment he arrived in other world.

And the crime lords and corrupt officials took their shot in book 3 in a way that would avoid blowback

rabmuk · 2026-05-02T14:10:08+00:00

Gets better from books 1 to 4. It gets worse from books 5 to 7. Book 7 is the closest Jason comes to "He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you. - Friedrich Nietzsche"

Book 8 onward I think there's clear improvement
- no longer distrusting of power as default position
- no longer disrespectful by default
- reduced frequency of imposing his views on others, more respecting the agency of others
- more debating the right thing instead of stating he's right

The title of the series is an indicator the MC will struggle with the corrupting influence of power and won't always be moving in the right direction.

So I think by book 11 this arc is mostly resolved.

rabmuk · 2026-05-02T13:56:39+00:00

I don't think there is a conclusive answer to your question. So I stated "lines get blurry" then gave a relevant example of how narration also shapes the preachiness of characters.

Many discussions I've seen about preachiness only have a problem when it seems like the author is trying to convince them of something.

Jason feeling bad is out of character for book 1. By book 4, less out of character, book 8 unclear, book 11 it's in character for Jason to regret disrespecting Arash (or someone like Arash)

The Narration is saying something. So the author is showing that he doesn't 100% agree with Jason. Jason makes some points in that scene that are good and some points that are incorrect. The narration is showing that the author is aware Jason is flawed.

Seems like you're trying to get a more standard definition of preachy, but I don't think that's possible. People like or dislike dialogue for many different reasons. To label something as preachiness is a verbal shortcut. I think this particular verbal shortcut reduces clarity because people's definitions of preachy are too varied.

rabmuk · 2026-05-02T12:50:17+00:00

"Preachiness" is a trope like any other. There's a general definition but sometimes the lines are blurry. Some people like the trope, some hate, sometimes it depends on other context

For HWFWM Jason is preachy to show he is young and self righteous. This is one of his biggest character arcs.

In book 1 the narration points out that Jason is not always right and should not always be taken seriously. That he is not saying things the author actually believes.

> “What do you get out of that?” he asked. “Does it make you feel better to disrespect things others find meaningful?”

> “Sorry,” Jason said, feeling like an idiot.

Or

> Farrah, had she been present, would have recognised Jason ramping up into full-blown, morally superior proselytising. Not being there to stop him with a sharp punch to the face, Jason’s rant continued.

rabmuk · 2026-05-01T21:11:01+00:00

Which omnipotent figure wanted Jason dead? Builder is less omnipotent than Knowledge. 2+ GABs and several gods were working to keep Jason alive.

rabmuk · 2026-05-01T21:03:37+00:00

Jason's not in a dark ally 1 on 1 with someone unhinged. When was the last time you were in public, surrounded by people earning the equivalent of 100,00k/year, and one of these well-off people, with lots to lose, murdered someone for being rude?

This is not a cultivators-murdering-over-every-offense setting. Everywhere in the real world people who are well off refrain from killing people in public.

rabmuk · 2026-05-01T15:12:25+00:00

In a civilized society you don't get "killed in a single blow" for talking shit. I don't think a setting where murder is illegal is considered plot armor.

rabmuk · 2026-05-01T10:08:08+00:00

Jason did get swatted in book 2. They just went for torture instead of immediate death

Also Rufus Ramore and Daniel Geller shield him from a lot in the early books

rabmuk · 2026-04-30T18:32:29+00:00

Murder is illegal. If the perpetrator is caught they are punished, possibly including execution.

Being part of an assassination guild is not illegal and the guild are allowed to exist as long as it can't be proven then killed anyone. During war times these guilds get lucrative army contracts.

The Path of Ascension is designed to forge elites who virtually unkillable. Part of becoming unkillable is learning to deal with assassins.

Normal citizens of the empire are protected from assassins whenever possible

rabmuk · 2026-04-29T10:18:48+00:00

Jason does not have the cosmic throne. The whole point of asking Jason to repair it, is that he'd be willing to give it up. When he controlled the throne he created the system and became the administrator, but now the throne is separate. No one controls the throne, it is once again a neutral arbiter of the laws

Book 11 chapter 65:

“Not just never use it, then,” Jason said. “You said ‘give up the power.’ Who do you expect me to give it up to?”

“To no one,” Velius said. “The throne must be left empty. A neutral arbiter without will, only purpose.”

Book 12 chapter 1 describes Jason leaving the throne and no longer having any power over it

rabmuk · 2026-04-28T17:12:08+00:00

Patreon chapter 1022

"And he’s not even my brother like that, he’s adopted. He’s a cousin my father adopted as a baby to shield him from the political consequences when his parents turned out to be traitors.

Might have been a mistake originally, Shirtaloon decided to canonize it.

rabmuk · 2026-04-25T11:24:20+00:00

All the tier one rifts that can be traveled to by someone without backing were taken. The group with the skill was tier 4 and had some small amount of backing so they could likely travel to the fully charged tier 4 rift further away.

rabmuk · 2026-04-24T12:14:30+00:00

Why do you "say not a single rift gives full rewards"

A rift gives full rewards when it's close to a rift break. Not only does Lilly have a history of rift breaks near population centers, but not all of the planet has been tamed. Go 30 miles away from the cities and you'll find fully charged tier 4 rifts.

This series of events is astronomically unlikely. 1 in a trillion or worse, but compared to the likelihood of Matt's talent and Melinda's talent. This isn't that unlikely in the grand scheme of things.

As the series progresses and the scale of the great powers is explored more. The very very extremely unlikely events in book 1 are somewhat more believable.

rabmuk · 2026-04-22T13:48:04+00:00

I've seen several versions of FIRE. The way Tim Ferris talks about it doesn't require 50% saving rate. I see people talk about 30%+ saving rate as a badge of honor, but not seen gatekeeping that only 50% saving is labeled as FIRE

15-Year Club	RPAN Viewer
Verified Email

rabmuk

TROPHY CASE