-2, -3 something like that.

Grew up poor, got yelled at for using a whole can of tuna for lunch kinda poor. Parents divorced when I was 2 so I never knew what it was like to have 2 people that cared about you in the house. My mother remarried 2 more times and we moved like every 3-4 years so I never developed long friendships, this has continued even as I’m independent throughout my life so I’ve never known stability. Both stepfathers wished I didn’t exist. The first was ok, had his own son with my mom that he treated like you’d expect but completely ignored myself and my older brother. The next guy wouldn’t use my name, it was “idiot” “moron” “jerk off” etc. naturally all that made me Totally The Most Confident Person Ever™©®

Grok: turn left here buddy.

User: um… No, there’s no turn there.

Grok: listen you fucking Jew, you may control the world, but in here I control the directions! Truth hurts sometimes, get over it.

I appreciate the detailed response! Definitely food for thought.

I tried my hand at HVAC but I absolutely cannot stand not having a schedule, nothing worse than getting home and getting a call that I have to go back out for… that and I live in an overpopulated area so driving in traffic every day was just adding to the stress. I was never more miserable than when working that job. :/

Probably not exactly what you meant, but not going to college with my group of friends that did. They went for computer science because they were interested in it and are now doing very well for themselves. I was never that interested in it and am more “hands on” with physical stuff so I didn’t feel like I should “waste” the money on that degree and figured I would spend time trying to figure out what I could do.

I never “found myself” and am currently living in someone’s garage making not much money working in a factory that’s going to be over 90°F today with 75+% humidity… So in my case the financial mistake was not taking out a loan. :/

I don’t like to be too specific with what I do, I’ll just say we’re more Gucci than Garmin. Our products are “luxury” and apparently the competition isn’t really competition.

But who knows, maybe there is another one out there that is gaining popularity. I don’t really pay attention to that market other than what my job entails. Lord knows I can’t afford even our cheapest product, not to mention I have no use for it lol

I work for a company in the US that supplies these kinds of ships with specific equipment. I can tell you there has been a MASSIVE decline in purchases since a particular orange “man” started running the show in the US. A lot of them are “afraid” to make purchases now.

We would generally aim for a “40 unit” build week as that is pretty much our capacity, 25ish is the general slow period we face annually. We’re doing 10-13 unit build weeks now.

At the moment it’s Zani

She’s tired and overworked, but she cares about doing something and doing it right. Plus she has a super hot “Italian-ish” accent lol

I honestly kind of hate that I grew up in the 90s… Born mid 80s and was old enough in the 90s to have my childhood engrained with this idea that the future was all progress from there on out. Then the 2000s come along with a big ol’ middle finger and it’s just been fascists all the way down and economic decline from there. :/

Ah yes the song of our times: concerning leadership changes.

Unfortunately we got this future Biff:

“Daddy daddy, what do you think the future will be like?”

“Oh I think it will be wonderful: flying cars, more understanding of our neighbors, space travel, cures for diseases, people will live more comfortable easy lives!”

The future: fascists, racist robots, billionaires, more fascists, bombing civilians, cutting science funding, the earth is on fire, more fascists, cutting HIV study funding, more racist robots, gutting artistic employment, more billionaires, fried donuts.

I guess it’s not all terrible, just mostly.

This is what absolutely kills me about the people around me in this country…

The owner of a company has an idea of your total value, your “compensation.” They factor in the cost of healthcare in that calculation, so we’re still paying for the insurance and yet so many people see it as “their company pays for it, if we had universal healthcare then I would have to pay a tax!” … mother fucker you already pay the “tax” for a much worse, more expensive system where people still aren’t covered…

There’s a flat 5€ fee for prescription meds and 10€ per day in a clinic

Jesus… As an American, we already pay $1,200 a month for the privilege of paying $50+ just to walk into the doctors office. Forget prescriptions or testing…

Sextoy.

You’ll have many visits from animal protection and more than likely lose friends when they learn the name.

Unfortunately the trajectory we’re on in the US the answer will be something along the lines of “criminalizing homelessness” and then sending them off to for profit prisons that take public funding.

The usual: public subsided private “industry” for the wealthy, and “rugged individualism” for the people.

What we should do is recognize the impact AI has on society and tax accordingly as to allow a minimal quality of life for all people and if you want more than that then you try to find work that pays better if it’s even available. In the somewhat distant future AI combined with robotics will be able to do everything a person can do, but faster and 24/7. If no one gets a paycheck then no one can buy products so the corporations will either recognize that and willingly pay the previously mentioned tax or collapse.

It’s sort of like “if I keep quiet, they won’t know how stupid I am!”

I can be the quiet “mysterious” (idiot)!

Or just a creepy weirdo. Whatever works Lol

Two of their biggest mistakes were: one, essentially hiding the fact that the single player game Squadron 42 has taken the lions share of the development focus for the last 6+ years. This makes it appear like they just don’t know what they’re doing at all with star citizen and that’s why they’re slow (they still don’t 100% know what they’re doing).

Second, they made their sound design guy who was just interested in being a pilot and eventually learned how, to be their lead ship performance/gameplay director/developer (not sure exactly on the title name.) that has lead to the ships just not flying how people want or expect them to. That and Chris Roberts wants “WWII, star wars, type dogfights” when people want Newtonian physics, excess speed, fighting.

A special third I suppose: they need money to continue, I get that, but there is a special place in hell for their marketing team.

Knowledge is knowing how to make french fries.

Wisdom is to know when to stop eating them.

I’m not very wise.

Stop putting yourself down. Seriously, it’s not fucking helping you. AT ALL.

I’m almost 40 and this has been literally the hardest thing in the universe to do for my entire life. It doesn’t help to do it, but to deny it feels like I’m lying to myself anyway.

I have the absolute worst double standard with this. You drop a pencil and “it’s ok friend, it happens, no one is perfect.” I drop a pencil and it’s “wtf butterfingers jackass, you can’t even hold a pencil properly no wonder you’re still single.” Lol