A huge factor is occupancy rates, which directly affect commercial real estate values which in turn affect interest rates on the loans for a given property. Commercial real estate loans are reevaluated every ten years and a low occupancy rate results in higher interest rates because the property is determined to be lower value. For example, Amazon is pushing RTO so hard because the South Lake Union properties are coming up on their ten year mark. Even a tiny increase in interest rate would result in (IIRC) billions in interest payments over the next ten years. Corporations are willing to risk the unknown labor/skills carnage than face the known interest payments carnage.

The other factors are getting people to quit so that unemployment/severance don’t need to be paid and managers with control issues. It’s all contemptible, but that’s what’s going on there.

As an aside, I work in software. Even in compliance-intensive environments (think: auditing, national security), some forward-looking multinational corps are going remote-only. And the really nimble players are remote-first. They get their pick of top talent at lower pay rates. I gladly take ~50% less to work from wherever I want on a flexible schedule without ever sitting in traffic. I think we’re going to see a shakeup in the top ten companies because new entrants are going to get superlative talent.

How did they miss “Jedi Master” in their list of qualifications?

The scribble in the upper left is a Psychick Cross, the symbol of the Temple ov Psychick Youth (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thee_Temple_ov_Psychick_Youth). Part Discordianism, part sex magic, part artist collective, lots of mind-expanding drugs. Lots of significance attributed to the number 23.

The really fun bit: in order to smell anything, you necessarily have to snort in molecules of that substance. It’s a happy little thought whenever passing a sewage treatment plant.

I don’t understand the joke. Would you be willing to add more context? TIA.

Oh, I skip FB and IG ads completely. It’s crazy: I didn’t even have to install anything, and the ads just disappeared one day.

But seriously, the “your attention is being monetized” model makes for such an awful experience for me. I’m envious of people who can enjoy the world and the Internet when ads are everywhere.

The Psychick Cross in the upper left… someone is missing a two.

The “consequences” for those involved in the Mỹ Lai Massacre (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Lai_massacre) paints a different picture.

That said, I have some close friends in the military, including one who is a Military Defense Counsel. Enforcement, when it happens, is quite strict.

Am cis-male. And I guarantee you my genitals absolutely make me way dumber than other genital types. 😆 I could fill a novel with data points of my genitally-enabled stupidity.

Peeked in to see if this was here. Thank you, drive through.

Anything worth doing is worth doing again.

Edit: I meant to say, “There was a phase and I missed my one chance to be cool?!”

Phase? I grew up poor AF, so it was either jars or beat-up, cast-off Tupperware cups, and I always hated the feel of putting plastic to my mouth. Now that I’m grown (definitely not grown-up, though) and actually able to afford excellent glassware, jars are just a great way to reduce and reuse. I’m all about multiuse items, and jars are one of my favorites.

Lots of things come in straight-sided jars which maximize volume stored with volume consumed. The jar comes with a sealing lid. They tend to be durable since they have to survive shipping. I can make a big cocktail or some great food to give to a friend without worrying if my container comes back. Yeah, I’m Team Jar all the way.

My BS, unprovable hypothesis: The Golden Age of Piracy was actually a successful Socialist movement, with Nassau being a disruptively successful enclave of Socialism in action. The pirates deeply threatened the budding power structures in the US (not conjecture) and the entrenched powers in Europe. While some powers, most notably royalty, were willing to use pirates as mercenaries (privateers), there was an excess of democracy and human concern (somewhat my conjecture) among the Nassau pirates. The Nassau pirates had pensions, a form of worker’s comp, disability, democratic command structures at sea, and healthcare (such as it was given the era). According to the historical texts on the Nassau pirates, there were almost no written records, which strikes me as especially odd since they had so many long-running financial and governing processes.

• Dress for the slide, not for the ride
• ATGATT
• Gray-haired riders don’t get that way from luck

What others did I miss?

Fuck Konami

Sincere question: what did Konami do?

Pssh… This guy is chump change, maybe a senior engineer at best. You can tell by his footwear. The really highly paid engineers have Crocs with socks, if any footwear at all. 😆

Fuck cancer right in it’s stupid ear. I’ll take sudden, unexpected death, even a stupid death, over watching someone close slowly auger into the ground like that. Hell, I’d rather suck start a shotgun over watching another loved one scoured away by cancer. There are people I’d kick in the junk on sight, and I still wouldn’t wish cancer on them.

Relationships aren’t business deals. You don’t pay for sex with choirs and brownie points.

All relationships are transactional. There may not always be an explicit ledger with columns for AP/AR. Interpersonal relationships that repeatedly fail to provide the expected return on investment result in dysfunction and toxicity. We always pay for sex and companionship; the currency just probably isn’t money.

I’ve seen this from different angles of results. I like my place to be neat, clean, and dialed. I had a partner of eight years, and we had a mutually agreed division of house chores. She complained that her chores were sapping her libido, that my standards were too high. “I hear you honey. Would it help if I did everything, leaving you to focus on your graduate degree?” She confirmed that would be helpful all around. Yeah, except things got even worse.

And reacting to “I’m just not horny after [doing my share of maintaining our home life]” has, in my experience, been a trap. In retrospect, that late stage behavior has always been my wife/partner trying to bleed the relationship just a little more before throwing away the husk, all while weaseling out of any reciprocal effort. I also now understand that I was self-selecting whatever that personality archetype is.

Now, with my current partner, she loves being of service. When she had cancer, me trying to take over everything domestic made her feel worse. We negotiated that she could retain her share of chores, but I could veto for the day if I thought she was overextending herself. For the entirety of our relationship, the amount of chores I do has nothing to do with how much sex we have. I cook dinner? We have sex. She cooks dinner? Sex. Someone else cooks dinner? Believe it or not, sex.

I credit a lot of our success to strong communication and clear boundaries. The chores:sex ratio seems to go completely out the window in a healthy, communicative relationship. Again, in my experience.

“Nonviolent Communication” by Marshall Rosenberg.

The lessons for communication and non-reactivity will pay dividends in every aspect of your interpersonal relations. Work, friendships, romantic relationships, even dealing with customer disservice.