If you think about it elevators are just vertical trains

Exactly.

I’m probably generally more optimistic about the future than the average Lemmy users, but even if I were pessimistic about the broad big picture questions, I’d still have plenty of local bits of local optimism. I really enjoy the company of my friends and family. I’m excited about my kids growing into cool adults who will do good things, from the tiny and mundane (a piece of artwork, a joke that makes me laugh) to the medium (taking an interest in my interests) to the big stuff (making big moves to change the world for the better).

I can’t end poverty or hunger. But I can support the food bank in my neighborhood and volunteer/give to organizations that are doing good work at alleviating hunger and homelessness. And maybe feeding someone a single meal doesn’t change the systemic problem that made him rely on my charity, but you’d better believe that meal still makes a difference to him in that moment.

Same with getting local kids their school supplies, helping a neighbor raise funds to pay off some medical debt, getting someone work clothes so that they can go interview for a job, teaching people how to negotiate and organize for better pay, etc.

We have plenty of power, collectively. Let’s not waste it being miserable and unproductive.

I just assumed that the family in the movie was rich and that all of the drivers of the plot were rich people problems. Kinda like Home Alone.

3d scanner that generates a 3d printing file that automatically creates one in your friends’ inboxes. It’s just plastic for now but they’re working on adding new materials and artificial scents to really capture the whole experience.

Dawkins’ The Selfish Gene goes into this in greater detail. Many species are hardwired to be willing to sacrifice their own lives for the survival of their kin. Basically, genes that code for protective and social behaviors might result in any given individual more likely to die before reproducing, but makes that individual’s close genetic kin more likely to survive to reproduction such that a particular group/pod/clan/flock is much more likely to persist over generations.

The extreme example is ants and bees, where most of the workers we see biologically cannot reproduce and are dead ends as individuals. But they work for the hive/colony, and the reproducing queen is the center of that reproductive strategy.

You see it with a lot of animals, especially those wired to be social.

Now I make 230

Yeah the break even point is like the early 30’s, even among people who are killing it in either path.10 years of $100k+ in your 20’s won’t be able to build up enough of a buffer against $200k+ after 30, when retirement ages are around 60.

a number of students that were attending just because family wanted them to, but their heart wasn’t in it

There are probably an even higher percentage of those in trade schools or entry level trades roles. You can’t compare the worst outcomes in one category with the best outcomes in another, and should instead compare medians.

Seems like there’s a way to analyze this in a systematic way, from social security name data. Any name that popped up as a newly popular name and fell back off within a decade or two would probably eventually become a marker of that generation.

Gladys was popular between 1900 and 1920, and became known as an old lady name by the 80’s or 90’s.

Karen was popular between 1945 and 1965, and is regarded a prototypical boomer name.

The Baby Jessicas of the 80’s will be retirees in the 2050’s. Ashleys and Emilys will probably be that in the 2060’s. There will be Britneys and Emmas.

But the methodology could probably be applied to the data in a systematic way.

Nah, that advice is still correct. The 4-year degree provides a huge benefit over not having it.

It’s just that a lot of people don’t realize just how much shittier not having a degree in 2024 is compared to not having a degree in 1974.

So while the baseline has gotten worse, and the actual benefit of college has shrunk, it’s still easily worth the 4 year commitment and the tuition/opportunity cost.

If I entered a house made of human flesh, I’m sure the smell alone would make me gag.

Are you sure? It’s rotting flesh that smells gross. If the building material isn’t rotting, would it smell bad? Or what if it were dehydrated to be able to last a long time, like an unseasoned jerky? Or maybe even tanned, like leather?

A million (bleep)ing diamonds!

I once dated someone with an extensive oral history.

From a Tumblr post that has been reposted a few times (in fact, my link is to the earliest repost I could find, as I think the original is long gone):

The sun is probably the closest thing we’ll ever have to a true Eldritch Abomination. Hear me out here-

• Older than recorded history; was here longer than any of us and will be here long after we leave. Has a finite beginning and end but is still incomprehensibly ancient
• Burns itself into your vision instantly and can blind you if you look for too long
• Further prolonged exposure can cause cancerous growths
• Non-humanoid shape floating through space; colossal flaming tentacles angrily lash out on occasion
• Sort of just appeared one day and is now surrounded by the corpses of its stillborn children
• People used to sacrifice other people to appease it
• Pretty sure it screams at us sometimes

Is this a thing people do? When I was in my 20’s I did the opposite, jerking off before dates so that I’d last longer later on.

I’m a man and I’ve never been catcalled, but I can believe women who overwhelmingly say it’s a common experience.

A non-black person saying they’ve never been followed around a convenience store, or dealt with adultification (the phenomenon where racial bias leads people to treat black children more as adults, including things like the first row in this comic assuming a young black woman is holding her own daughter).

We all live our own experiences, so trying to deny that something happens based on not having experienced it yourself is just being obtuse.

A survey of medical students in 2016 found the same trends in actual beliefs, long after the data disproved the theory.

This RPG’s rules are bullshit!

Are you under the impression that families are going to the grocery store every day and trying to eat everything within 48 hours of picking it up from the store? No, people are buying the week’s worth of stuff and might not be getting to actually cooking it until 6 days later.

Buy a week’s worth of food, with each perishable item in quantities small enough to go into a few meals per week, out of the 21 meals you’ll be eating that week.

Fresh vegetables and fruit last a week or two. Fresh meat lasts a week. Eggs last a few weeks. Most dairy products last a week or two.

Make meals out of a combination of fresh ingredients, dry goods (pasta, rice, beans, breads), canned/preserved foods/sauces/condiments, frozen foods. With basically one perishable feature ingredient per dinner, it doesn’t take that much planning to feed yourself for maybe 10-25% as much as it costs from takeout or restaurants. Even if your food waste is double as a single person, that’s still 20-50% the cost.

It’s true of all combat sports, and, to some degree, any other sport in which you go face to face with your opponent.

And although it might be true that at the very very top levels people both learn to be more ambidextrous (so that there’s less of a mismatch between sides whether right or left handed) and are more experienced/skilled at dealing with left handed opponents, the early years of learning the sport will weed out fewer left handed people so that the top levels have more left handed people.

Yeah, a lot of popular webcomics seem to try to mine personal experiences (especially around introversion or social awkwardness) for relatability: Sarah’s Scribbles, Pizzacake, etc.