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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 5th, 2023

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  • It wasn’t always followed on Reddit, but downvoting there was supposed to be for comments that don’t contribute to the conversation.

    Here the guidance is looser – the docs don’t address comments, but do say to “upvote posts that you like.”

    I’ve tried contributing to some conversations and sometimes present a different viewpoint in the interest of thought exchange, but this often results in massive downvotes because people disagree. I’m not going to waste my energy contributing to a community that ends up burying my posts because we have different opinions.

    That’s true on Reddit to, so I’m kind of being tangential to the original question. I guess what I’m saying is that some people might feel like I do and won’t engage in any community, be it Reddit or Lemmy, if it’s just going to be an echo chamber.





  • When I went to college I had saved every penny that I made. I went to a community college for two years under an earned scholarship and worked during that time; then I transferred into a four-year institution that required three years of classes. I paid for the first two years with my savings and part of the third year with a loan. I continued on to grad school and took research/teaching assistantships to provide a salary that covered housing, but received free tuition as part of the deal.

    My first semester at the four-year school was way harder than anything I was used to. At community college I had coasted along, but this required effort. Paying for it myself out my back account made it so much more real, and I decided then that I was going to do better because I sure as heck didn’t work so hard all those years just to throw it away.

    We paid for most of our millenial child’s college. He ended up dropping out of college a couple of times and always spent too much money. He’s now married with a wife and child, and together they make more money than my wife and I did combined up until a few years ago. They’re still living paycheck-to-paycheck but have to buy every new gadget.

    Our two Gen-Z daughters just went off to college. They will probably graduate, but they also don’t understand the value of money. They didn’t want to work, didn’t want to save… They get a scholarship that pays a monthly stipend, and they burn through that as it comes in. Their college decisions were based on things like “is that campus pretty?” “is their cafeteria food really good?” regardless of the cost. They refused to do community college.

    What’s my take? These three kids have a sense of entitlement and a need for immediate gratification that I didn’t really see in my generation. I’m pretty sure this isn’t the result of bad parenting (we adopted the two younger ones as teens), and I see it with co-workers’ children as well.

    Does that mean that every Millenial or Gen-Z is like this? No. It just means these three definitely are. But they don’t get much pity from me when they complain and it was the result of bad choices. I chose my college path based on value: scholastic and economic. They chose their path based on social and sensory reasons.





  • I was a manager, and another guy was a more senior manager in another division. We both did IT. For some reason he didn’t like me and/or was trying to get our services moved to him, so he went to our director every week for over a year to tell him made-up stories about me.

    He eventually left after a lot of people realized he was a highly manipulative, but I still hear things that he told people as part of an explanation about why I was passed up “for this” or why I wasn’t right “for that.” It cost me a lot of raises, especially in cases where things were gossiped to other people and the source was lost. Now I’m only a manager in title, but my management responsibilities were taken away.

    Unfortunately, I’m caught in a ticking trap – another 1.5 years and I retire with a full pension for the rest of my life. Losing that by leaving isn’t worth it (assuming I live long enough afterwards).





  • My favorite exchange on ChatGPT (back in March):

    **You**
    Tell me a dad joke.
    
    **ChatGPT**
    Why did the tomato turn red?
    
    Because it saw the salad dressing!
    
    **You**
    Can you explain to me why that joke is funny?
    
    **ChatGPT**
    Sure, I'd be happy to explain why that joke is considered funny!
    
    The humor in this joke comes from a play on words and a bit of misdirection. The first part of the joke sets up an expectation that there will be a serious or logical explanation for why the tomato turned red. However, the punchline delivers a silly and unexpected answer that has nothing to do with the actual reason for the tomato's color change.
    
    The play on words is in the phrase "saw the salad dressing." The word "saw" can be interpreted in two ways: as the past tense of "see" (as in, the tomato observed the dressing) or as a cutting tool (as in, the tomato was physically sliced by the dressing). This creates a bit of confusion and a humorous mental image, which is why the joke is often considered amusing. Additionally, the idea of a tomato being aware of salad dressing is absurd and adds to the silliness of the joke.
    

    We went on a bit further with me pointing out that their murder take was distasteful, and it responded that humor is subjective.