Social DGames Social | V/LA |

[Overswarm]

either one and done or simply non-girlfriend. women are stupid and i dont respect em.

also update on the rental: THEY DIDNT NOTICE ****! SUCK MY **** ENTERPRISE!

I'd probably work on changing that.

Casual encounters require two consenting parties. Your best results (without being immoral or doing illegal activity) are going to come from people who think similarly to you. Of that pool of people who think similarly to you, only a small percentage will likely be interested in you in that fashion. You cannot reliably alter this percentage to any large degree in the short term, so your only chance of increasing odds is to increase the size of the pool. If one in five hundred women are interested in non-commitment, you need to find five hundred women. That kind of thing. You then need to find a way to figure out which 1/500 it is without personally interviewing all 500 -- this would be especially difficult because that "1" still needs to be treated like a human being and cannot be treated poorly if you want a favorable outcome. Asking "sex?" to five hundred women is unlikely to be successful.

Given that most people end up with someone within one sigma of their level of attractiveness, you can narrow your search down by shooting below your level of attractiveness. If you are a "5", you aim for a "3" or below. This increases the likelihood of your offer being accepted.

Think of it from your perspective. If a scabbed, diseased, toothless hag emerged from a pile of mud and bile and said "sex?" you would say no 100% of the time. If some worldwide pageant award-winner supermodel actress person came up and said "sex?" you would say yes 100% of the time. The percentages equalize the closer to your base level of attractiveness, where preference comes into play. You want to be the supermodel -- you aren't, but you want to be.

But if you are a 5, the hag is a 1, and the supermodel is a 10, then a 10 looking for a 5 has a 100% success rate. This means if you had a bomb collar around your neck, you could find that diseased hag and ask her "sex?" and she would say yes near 100% of the time.

Most people try to shoot for the most attractive mate they can find. This results in a sort of "arms race" where people flout their financial status, physical looks, social circles, personality, etc. Most people who fail to find a significant other do so because they are either not being the kind of person that someone else would want or they are shooting too high. This is most often found in high school, early college. In a normal high school there might be like 2 to 10 actual attractive girls that are higher on the scale, but eeeeeeverybody want to date those from that pool. Because of this, they have bargaining ability and can float from potential mate to potential mate without any downsides. You want that exact ability!

So if it is possible, you can improve your own financial status, physical attractiveness, social circle, or personality and then can become a desirable catch yourself. This is highly unlikely to work in the short term. You are likely not wealthy enough to wow someone in any meaningful way; if you were, you could just ask women "hey, do you want to go on cruises with me for a year" and it wouldn't take long to get a yes. Physical attractiveness isn't difficult to modify, but everyone has a personal hard cap and it takes a lot of hard work and effort to reach that cap, not to mention time. Social circles have to be built slowly, gradually over time to maintain a good foundation. Personality often has innate qualities and requires unique experiences and long bouts of self-reflection to improve.

So since you can't improve upon yourself in any meaningful way, lower your target and you will increase your odds.

"But OS, what is my attractiveness level?"

People are typically within one sigma of attractiveness with their partners. Look at who has been interested in you in the past for a significant time period. There are many variables, so you will need to be honest with yourself. If you dated a super hot lady for two years but it turned out she had horrible mental problems that resulted in her staying with you then it is unlikely that your physical attractiveness kept her around. If you dated someone way up there on the scale and then she left quickly, again, unlikely that you are within one sigma.



It is also important to note that your strategy is a losing one. The "aim high" strategy is based around failing a high percentage of the time, but succeeding and then holding on to that success as well as you can. So if a 5 gets himself a 7, he makes up for his fiveness by being a caring significant other, being thoughtful, sacrificing time and energy to make the 7 happy, etc., which doesn't change that he is a 5 but grants special advantages. The "aim low" strategy is based around succeeding a high % of the time, but constantly having to keep shooting.

If you look at it as a binary system done over a length of time, you can immediately see the issue.

The "aim high" strategy will show up as fail, fail, fail, fail, fail, fail, success, success, success.... on to infinity. It hits the success and likely stays as success onward.

The "aim low" strategy will show up as success, success, success, fail, fail, fail, fail.... on to infinity. Even if you succeed every time you can, eventually something happens that lowers your number. You begin to age -- you gain weight, lose hair. You lose your youthful spark and are no longer a 5 -- you are a 4, maybe a 3. Your financial standing, social standing, etc. may be better, but they are irrelevant to anything that isn't long term. Eventually you can't aim low any more. Being a 5 and aiming for a 1 may net you a 100% chance of success, but this isn't the case from a 3 to a 1. Chances are you aren't shooting for a 1 anyway; you are likely shooting for a 3. Once you become a 3, you'll have the same success level as when you were a 5.

Ultimately, the winning strategy is to not say "women are dumb" and to instead of look for someone you can share a long term relationship with and, in the interim, improving yourself as much as possible so that your attractiveness level is at its peak when you find someone within one sigma of your own level of attractiveness.



Cheat code: Fun fact! Women typically end up dating men that are one head size taller. Go out on valentine's day and look at all the couples. Guy will stand with his chin at above her top of head / forehead height, over and over and over again. This is most especially true in longer couples. So, when looking for a target within 1 sigma, you can narrow it down further by looking at their height compared to yours.

 

[Maven89]

My advice was simpler

 

[Orboknown]

Red light district and pray you don't get a STD?

Pretty contradictory there mate. I was in Korea and can almost guarantee from people I know the two come hand in hand

 

[~ Gheb ~]

I'd put it a bit simpler.

Ideally you want the woman to be older than you, a bit more on the cynical side and not too attractive [these three features often come hand in hand]. Not saying you should look out for some old, hideous hag but you really wanna make sure that a.) you'll increase your chance to actually get the **** b.) she won't feel attached to you [girls can do that] and c.) you won't accidently fall in love with her like an idiot. Plus, based on my personal experience women around your age typically haven't discovered their more messed-up side yet which can make things boring sometimes.

 

[Cheerilee]

My ideal significant other has four pegs and a mattress on top of it. And in between of the B & D there's an E not an A.

 

[KevinM]

Curious what they state the eviction is for?

 

[KevinM]

You could alternatively just go to parties and be social

 

[#HBC | Ryker]

Overswarm advice for opening a bar?

I love the "put a puzzle in front of OS" game.

 

[Spak]

Overswarm advice for opening a bar?

I love the "put a puzzle in front of OS" game.

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/41460

Google is a magical thing that you can listen to occasionally.

 

[#HBC | Ryker]

Google isn't nearly as entertaining to read.

 

[Maven89]

Overswarm advice for opening a bar?

I love the "put a puzzle in front of OS" game.

If this is honest, then the best area for that is probably just north of Dallas, the suburbs there allowed bars (texas laws and such) a few years ago and now it's booming.

Also I live there, so you'll never be out of business

 

[Orboknown]

Youd get a ****ton of fort hood soldiers if you opened a solid bar in this area

 

[Overswarm]

Overswarm advice for opening a bar?

I love the "put a puzzle in front of OS" game.

The business stuff really depends on your local area. Find any and all possible tax breaks, talk to lawyers, all that jazz. Obtain capital, figure out how to get people to come in, that sort of thing. Standard business stuff not related to a bar.

The first question though is, what kind of bar do you want to create? The rules change depending on that.

This is actually probably the most loaded question I've received so far.

The easiest way to figure out how to make the bar successful though is to break down your profit centers -- it is true for any business.

How can you lower expenses?
How can you increase profit on a sale?
How can you increase the number of sales?
How can you increase the number of new customers?
How can you increase the number of repeat customers?

Answer the above 5 questions, in order.

If it turns out that a beer normally costs $4 at a bar in your area and you'd need to buy an order of 500 gallons to make $4/beer profitable for you, you need to either have enough capital to do so or need to lower expenses somehow. This could be exclusivity deals with local breweries, it could be sharing your location with somewhere else, whatever. Anything to cut expenses so the expensive 500 gallon limit (hypothetical) is worthwhile if you can't afford it normally.

The next question is how to increase profits on a sale.

So you sell a beer for $4. They come in bottles. You can't "cut" the beer in any way without being caught, don't want to water down a keg, etc., etc. So you can either buy more than 500 gallons to make YOUR price cheaper but your customers price the same, or you find additional profits. Maybe you sell giant pretzels in your place, the big soft ones from baseball games, and they are normally $4 as well. They don't sell well, but they only cost $.50 for you to make so the profit margin is HUGE. You then run a "Buy 2 beers, get a pretzel for $2". You only make $1.50, but you start the habit of people buying 2 beers and a pretzel. Your one beer patron making you maybe like $1 is now making you $3.50, or whatever. You've increase the profit on the individual sale without requiring any more bulk or overhead.

Next to increase the number of sales -- this is sales per individual customer, mind you. You can do this with deals like most places do, like the pretzel thing above. That works sometimes, but as competition increases your profit often goes closer to 0. Rule of economics. Race to the bottom! So it's a losing game to just try to cram deals together. Instead, give people a reason to stay. "Tuesday night beer pong tournament". Charge people an entry fee and put X% back into the pot for the winning pair. Tournaments with many entrants can run a long time. You've increased the number of sales as those people are going to be standing around for a long time because you are smart and only have one beer pong table. You run single elimination, but people will want something to drink inbetween games. You have now increased sales, and maybe repeat customers every tuesday.

Increasing the number of new customers can be done in a lot of ways, but most of them rely on luck. "Tuesday night beer pong tournament" might be interesting if people hear about it, but advertisement can be expensive. Do direct advertisement instead. Contact local fraternities from colleges and let them know that the winning frat gets their sigil hung above the beer pong table. Things like that. Find someone else to do the advertising for you, they'll make it a "thing", people will come in. Having special events can bring unique groups in. If you are near a college, do weird stuff. "Monday Night Bad Poetry Contest" and bring in a bunch of english literature students to come in and laugh. Opening your bar to special events by blocking off a giant table or something can be useful at getting new customers. etc., etc.

Increasing repeat customers is all about creating a good experience for the most part, but they also need a reason. These are typically known as 'integration factors'. If every Thursday you go to the Arcade with your friends, then ALL of your friends are asking you to go to the arcade every Thursday. You are influenced into being a repeat customer. That's what you what -- integration factors that make other people influence their friends to return. "This is what we do", kind of stuff. This is why bars have trivia nights, football on TVs, etc. "Going to the bar to watch the game" kind of stuff.


But you basically just find the bar you want to create, and then answer the above 5 questions. Your theme doesn't matter. It could be a "only hot girls work here" bar, a barcade, a themed western bar, steampunk bar, girly bar, whatever. Those 5 questions, top to bottom, in order of importance.

 

[Cheerilee]

#1: Get capital from friends and family. Do everything possible to not take a loan from a bank or offer an equity stake to them.

 

[~ Gheb ~]

You should generally avoid interaction with banks as much as possible for now imo.

 

[Cheerilee]

You should generally avoid interaction with banks as much as possible for now imo.

Some banks can help you set up a Roth IRA investment which is like the second best investment you can make terms of (profit / reliable return) for gradual long term gain. @BarDulL probably would have an interesting take on how to deal with banks for loans or setting up a practice based on good financial principles.

 

[Overswarm]

You should generally avoid interaction with banks as much as possible for now imo.

whut

maybe in Europe, USA interest rates are stupid low

 

[~ Gheb ~]

EU interest rates are to be lowered down to 0.0 fyi [from the 0.25 I think it currently has].

 

[Overswarm]

EU interest rates are to be lowered down to 0.0 fyi [from the 0.25 I think it currently has].

that is like

-the- time to talk to banks

 

[~ Gheb ~]

Only as long as you don't actually leave any money there.

 

[Maven89]

Only as long as you don't actually leave any money there.

What? Where do Austrians keep their money?

 

[Orboknown]

Under his salt mound duh

 

[Overswarm]

Only as long as you don't actually leave any money there.

You take their money. As a loan. That's why interest rates are important. If you have a 0% interest rate, then using money for any profit at all results in a net gain.

 

[~ Gheb ~]

What? Where do Austrians keep their money?

Invest into something that has actual value perhaps? Shares/funds, gold, silver, property ... stuff that's more reliable than fiat money [read: just about everything].

You take their money. As a loan. That's why interest rates are important. If you have a 0% interest rate, then using money for any profit at all results in a net gain.

I get that. I don't see how that helps in soup's case though. He's clearly not in a position where he can use money "for any profit" just like that. Taking a loan from a bank is still a risk, especially when you neither have a financial backbone nor an immediate way to make profit.

 

[Cheerilee]

We were talking about opening a bar.

 

[#HBC | Dancer]

I'm also curious as to know the reasoning for Soup's eviction.

@OS: You said to avoid burger flipping jobs since it's a time sink in terms of skill development. Well, what I have right now is precisely a burger flipping job. But I'm also in college (not much has changed for me since I've last been here). Prepaid money is out, and I'm currently paying for college out of pocket. It's more expensive than I thought it was going to be. You've also talked about getting a second job. That's great, became that's actually something I've considered for awhile now. But there's no reasonable way I could go to school and hold two jobs at the same time, and the second job would be burger flipping job number two. Do you think it's worth to leave school for awhile (say, one semester) in order to crank out the rices in two dead end jobs? Then, hopefully move to something part time and wrap up college as quickly as possible?

Also, what ARE some examples of "skill development jobs" that someone like Soup could get with no/little experience?

Also also, how does one discover their passion for what they actually want to do it life? How did YOU discover what you wanted to do (assuming you have). D=On your wider cultural views, do you think Millennials in general have trouble discovering what they want in life because an over saturation of media and entertainment dwarfed the discovery process that generations past went through more freely?

 

[Cheerilee]

Millennials have trouble discovering what they want in life because there is less room for failure. GM in the 1950s was the largest employer of Americans with the most commonly employed position being a factory worker. The standard wage when you adjust the purchasing power parity to today's standards is around $30-35 an hour. Today, the most common employer is Walmart that averages pay around $8.15 an hour. The GM of today now currently employs over 50% of its main work force oversees and even went into bankruptcy despite cutting costs by relying on cheaper industrial standards across the globe. It's funny how people get concerned about illegals crossing the border and taking our jobs when corporations have largely taken away a mainstay of American jobs and shipped them overseas to foreign factories.

Despite this the US government was not afraid to bailout GM turning it from a privately owned enterprise into a quasi-owned government entity. A scandal occurred where due to financial distress (before the government decided to pool funds into GM) the company decided to cut a few corners on ignition springs knowing that the spring mechanism was faulty post-launch but intentionally not recalling because the recall would cause them to lose a fraction of the revenue produced by the newly manufactured cars. The result of this faulty spring has resulted in the death of a couple of American drivers and several severe accidents leading to serious injuries.

People fail to notice that no one has really managed to distill a secrete to success. Essentially we're currently working in a sandbox environment where everyone is trying to find out how to get a lead on everyone else and we've come to a point where morals and human decency are trivialities. Perhaps one of the most enlightening moments was the very brief stint where I was homeless, homeless. It's when you are begging that you discover how little people care about each other and yet still waste time with social media and other networks feigning a normal lifestyle when they can't be bothered for a single second to compromise their daily routine. I don't blame them. It's not the individuals that are at fault for lack of empathy, it's that everyone is so compacted time wise and drained emotionally that none of us have the time to even spare a glance at the little beggar boy on the street corner.

The tech boom was followed by the education boom, the Millennial generation has merely been a participant for the most part in most of these booms and not really innovators allowing a lot of tech moguls who had missed certain chances to get early leads into Silicon Valley to still take advantage of strides in fringe cultural developments through newer startups like Kickstarter and Uber. Most students are conditioned to not be risk takers and actually don't engage themselves in behavior that will get them into trouble. However, thinking outside the box and discovering your own niche market is really the best way to break out in doing something you're really passionate about despite not necessarily having the capital to back it.

I could go more into unnecessary details until I break the page, but can already make the fringe connections so I won't waste time. I also worked 30~35 hours a week while studying Biochemistry and I still accrued debt despite covering most of my tuition by merit scholarships. Life is hard. Living is hard. Dealing with ****ing people is ****ing hard. Dying looks like a ****ing vacation I don't mind a single bit not coming back from. I can tell you that I'm a living example of doing everything wrong and gradually building up from my mistakes. You've got to hustle and get rid of the notion that work is a 9-5 job, that doesn't exist anymore, for anyone.

 

[#HBC | Dancer]

Well said.

Not trying to get too political here but it's interesting how freer trade has debatedly stifled innovation, in the sense that it allowed manufacturing jobs to be moved out of the country and shifted our economy to a more low paying service industry one. I think it's interesting to link Millennial's unsung identity crisis with the current state of economic affairs. It's not a connection I had made yet.

Have you heard of the author Set Godin before? If you haven't, he has written a pretty interesting book that I think might piqued your interest.

 

[Cheerilee]

Well said. Not trying to get too political here but it's interesting how freer trade has debatedly stifled innovation, in the sense that it allowed manufacturing jobs to be moved out of the country and shifted our economy to a more low paying service industry one. I think it's interesting to link Millennial's unsung identity crisis with the current state of economic affairs. It's not a connection I had made yet. Have you heard of the author Set Godin before? If you haven't, he has written a pretty interesting book that I think might piqued your interest.

Millennials get a bad rap because we actually haven't bombed anything or actually protested at what we view to be absurd situations. Zuccoti Park disbanded without anyone managing to get anything out of it. We have allowed ridiculous internet movements to represent us like hash tag movements and online petitions in comparison to organizations like the Weather Underground that cropped up during the 1960s-1970s and actually took actions against the government to display their disapproval over the Vietnam War. We get criticized because we cope with society and use technology as a "voice" rather than organizing and forming militias. Most millennials are soft and naive and unbearable to deal with whereas the other coin is psychopathic and manipulative lending them towards being being corporation climbers and managers. I think millennials are survivors. I think it fits the theme we've come across on this board and the consensus I've found in my personal life. As for the audio recording I bookmarked it. I like it.

 

[Overswarm]

Well said.

Not trying to get too political here but it's interesting how freer trade has debatedly stifled innovation, in the sense that it allowed manufacturing jobs to be moved out of the country and shifted our economy to a more low paying service industry one. I think it's interesting to link Millennial's unsung identity crisis with the current state of economic affairs. It's not a connection I had made yet.

Have you heard of the author Set Godin before? If you haven't, he has written a pretty interesting book that I think might piqued your interest.

Free trade is fantastic. You get 0.25 to even 1% GDP growth per annum. It is amazing, you just sign a piece of paper and BAM! There it is.

The issue with free trade is that the profits from it are nationalized and the losses are localized. This means that the nation as a whole gets .25% GDP growth (yay) but 45 people lose their jobs due to downsizing. Those 45 people don't care about .25% GDP growth.

But you can't legislate wealth -- that's why free trade is important. By saying "nope, no free trade", you lose that .25% and don't replace it with anything. What you CAN do is redistribute the wealth that is naturally obtained through free trade so that the profits are more readily available to those on the bottom rungs of the ladder. This can be done in a variety of ways, the simplest being an increase in taxes which are then used to fund social programs like medicare, medicaid, social security, education grants and scholarships, section 8 housing, etc., and the most complex being something more akin to basic income.

 

[Overswarm]

I'm also curious as to know the reasoning for Soup's eviction.

@OS: You said to avoid burger flipping jobs since it's a time sink in terms of skill development. Well, what I have right now is precisely a burger flipping job. But I'm also in college (not much has changed for me since I've last been here). Prepaid money is out, and I'm currently paying for college out of pocket. It's more expensive than I thought it was going to be. You've also talked about getting a second job. That's great, became that's actually something I've considered for awhile now. But there's no reasonable way I could go to school and hold two jobs at the same time, and the second job would be burger flipping job number two. Do you think it's worth to leave school for awhile (say, one semester) in order to crank out the rices in two dead end jobs? Then, hopefully move to something part time and wrap up college as quickly as possible?

No, college is most important. By far.

Your order of importance is College -> Job. My degree is in English and Secondary Education. I got a job outside of that field making around $30k when I graduated -- not a lot, but I felt rich at the time and it made paying off my student loans a paltry experience. This $30k job gave me raises and job promotion opportunities that helped considerably in the near future.

Also, what ARE some examples of "skill development jobs" that someone like Soup could get with no/little experience?

This is the hard part.

Most people assume a "skill job" is something you learn. "I'm a carpenter" = I can do carpenter things. This isn't necessarily the case, at least not as "concrete". What you are looking for are transferable skills. Not concrete ones.

If you're in a burger flipping job, you are becoming qualified for only burger flipping jobs. Flipping burgers = concrete skill.

Now if you were managing a burger flipping place? That is transferable. Maybe you have a year or two experience managing a McDonald's or something. Not what most would consider fantastic, but you now get to say you have management experience. That's huge on a resume. Maybe you can move from managing a McDonald's to managing a supermarket. More pay, more responsibilities.

If possible, you might want to try to work in sales somewhere. Salespeople can make bank if they are in the right place doing the right thing. It isn't for everybody (I would hate it), but it's relatively easy to get into if you have the personality and drive for it and you get paid a % based on commission. That's pretty huge. More importantly, sales experience at a **** job in college = transferable to "real" sales job after college that requires a college degree.

You an IT guy? Find a way to be on an IT helpdesk. Again, not for everyone. I was good at it, but I had a knack for tech and was really patient. Camping in smash is a transferable skill! You can sometimes even work remotely for these jobs. I think Apple has a tech support position that works remotely that is pretty good. These jobs are GREAT college jobs because, depending on where, you can often do homework while still doing your job. Just make sure to put the job first while you are on the clock. I had a guy I worked with that played Diablo II while working. I personally watched the entirety of Dragon Ball Z online. These jobs are great. I've actually considered getting a second job and finding one of these myself, but haven't looked very hard for online jobs.

Starting your own business is stupid easy as long as you DO something stupid easy. Buy a respirator, two rubber gloves, a bucket, some sponges, rags, and spray bottles and bleach. Ta da! You now have a mold-removal service -- you can be hired to clean out basements or bathrooms to get rid of that mold. Remove the respirator and put a vacuum cleaner and whatnot in your car and you can have a personalized home cleaning service. You come in and clean the houses of old people. The hard part is finding the time and advertising/pricing your services -- this is often really difficult to do when you really need a consistent income stream, but you can do some good scaling with this. If you actually do a good job, you can then hire someone else to clean some of your houses. Eventually you don't work at all and just have other people doing it for you. Then you make money and have no time spent. The problem with things like this is that all the effort is up front and all the rewards are way down the road, but everything you do will be transferable.

Think of it this way. 'okay so-and-so, what is your work experience?'

Answer 1: I worked at a burger flippin' place for a while in college. I was never late!

Answer 2: I started my own home-cleaning service. We offered three distinct packages at competitive prices, the lowest being a quick Dust n' Sweep, the highest being a deep clean of carpets and scrubbing down the walls. I advertised aggressively in what I considered key markets at the time; to find additional markets I offered a 50% discount to people who referred 3 others to my services. Once my clientele increased to where I had very little free time, I hired contractors to work for me for competitive wages in my area. The business is actually still going, but I rarely do the cleaning myself anymore -- I just find additional cleaners and spend maybe an hour a week going over finances. It was a good experience for me, I feel I learned a lot very quickly.

One of those guys is getting hired, and if he doesn't he is still making money.

One of my friends makes jewelry. She orders things from Ali Baba or Michaels and makes a bunch of jewelry, advertises it on instagram, and then sells it wholesale to people who go to craft shows. She does it part-time as a mother and mostly breaks even for now, but is starting to get repeat customers.

The biggest thing though is to figure out what exactly it is you're wanting to do, and to do that thing. At least as close as possible. If you want to be a teacher, find a way to be a substitute teacher. Or a tutor, if you don't have the time. I taught ESL. Maybe you don't have ANY idea what you want to do. Look into traveling to South Korea to teach English, some people do that for a decade!

Basically all you are looking for is transferable skills, preferably transferable to places that you actually want to work.

Also also, how does one discover their passion for what they actually want to do it life? How did YOU discover what you wanted to do (assuming you have). D=On your wider cultural views, do you think Millennials in general have trouble discovering what they want in life because an over saturation of media and entertainment dwarfed the discovery process that generations past went through more freely?

Passion is over-rated. You know what I'm passionate about? Making video games. I love games and it's been a dream of mine to actually create games -- one of my "lifetime goals" is to put a game on steam. I don't even care if it is popular or even good, but I want it to be something I complete and put on Steam.

I'm working on 3 projects over time. One is a two player platformer that uses all free assets so I rely on no one and have no expenses. The second is a megaman-style boss battle game where I've hired a pixel artist to create the pixel art for me. This costs a bit, but allows me to move forward with something more concrete and "real", and I'm less limited by free assets. The third project is Spiff Spacely Saves the Universe and it uses 3D graphics and is a pretty large project, been working on it for nearly two years. It's a long-shot, but the most likely to be "popular" in some fashion. It's pretty polished and I work with an entire team on it -- two programmers, a writer, one/two 3D artists depending on the time, and me for game design.

The above has earned me $0 and has even cost me things. If I release all three, I may break even, I may not. I may make a ton of money, I may make nothing. It's a toss-up, a gamble. I can put even more time into it and accelerate the timeline and make it 'my life', but there is always a possibility of failure.

I love playing music. I have a classical guitar, electric guitar, keyboard, drums, saxophone, a handful of eclectic "world" instruments, I play all sorts of stuff. I'm not great at all of them (I have a violin but can't play it at all), but they make me happy. I've made I think maybe $500 total off of giving music lessons, which covers the cost of my classical guitar only.

I love playing games competitively. I made thousands off of Brawl, couple hundred off of my stint with Smash 4. Definitely a net positive. But it took up every weekend and I learned less over that time period. TONS OF FUN. But not transferable past a certain point. Pay cap was pretty hard. I could win regionally, couldn't win nationally. At one point Mew2King lived in Ohio (I live in Kentucky) and my 1st place thorugh 3rd place wins were now 2nd place through 5th place wins. Ally lived in MI at the time as well, so then it was 3rd through 8th. I could have practiced to compete with them, but it would not have been worth it. Look at top smashers -- the elite players. Most of them are going to be long-term failures in the game of life because they will be unable to meet their goals. The real success stories are players like HungryBox who are "job first, smash second", commentators like D1 who earn transferable skills, GimR with his video streaming experience, AlphaZealot with his tournament running experience (he was really good) etc., etc.

Passion doesn't amount to anything. It's also a finite resource. I love playing classical guitar. If I was forced to make my living off of playing guitar I would hate playing classical guitar. I know people who started streaming and they now earn a very modest sum from streaming, but they will never, ever make a real living off of it. They are "trapped" in a mediocrity spiral because it is so hard to break through to the top. Just not enough room.

But things you aren't passionate about?

My "real job" is "academic technology analyst". I help faculty and staff do things with academic tech, work on some projects. I do some neat stuff and enjoy it, but it isn't 'my calling'. This job gave me a house, let me support my wife, allows me to have twins without a complete panic attack, and lets me follow my passions. Happily do so.


There has never, in the history of the world, been a time where you can just "find your passion". The past generations were primarily factory workers. No one has ever wanted to do that in any capacity. They just did it because it paid well.


Don't find a passion. Find something you can tolerate, and do a good job at it.

 

[#HBC | Gorf]

i was just kidding about the getting ***** thing geez

 

[Overswarm]

i was just kidding about the getting ***** thing geez

But I bet you learned something

 

[#HBC | Gorf]

I'd put it a bit simpler.

Ideally you want the woman to be older than you, a bit more on the cynical side and not too attractive [these three features often come hand in hand]. Not saying you should look out for some old, hideous hag but you really wanna make sure that a.) you'll increase your chance to actually get the **** b.) she won't feel attached to you [girls can do that] and c.) you won't accidently fall in love with her like an idiot. Plus, based on my personal experience women around your age typically haven't discovered their more messed-up side yet which can make things boring sometimes.

oh **** thats actually a good one

os whats the best way to meet cougars? i find older women significantly more attractive and have being with a cougar on my very short bucket list.

 

[Overswarm]

Probably bars or AA meetings

 

[Maven89]

So Russia, whose entire lifeblood is oil, just pulled out of Syria

Then Obama announced that it was cancelling it's plan to drill in the Southeast coast

I've been a fan of Obama, but goddamn is this suspicious to me. Did he really cut a deal with Russia? I'm not opposed to much, but helping to secure Russia' finances is not a deal we should be making. I'd rather they collapsed and disintegrated, the way it looked to be heading. I doubt this single oil cutback could effect the markets at all, they're already over saturated, but the idea of it is awful and not something I want the president to trade.

If Saudi Arabia announces some sort of oil cutback, I'm going to take it as confirmation.

 

[#HBC | Ryker]

 

[Maven89]

Yeah basically

 

[#HBC | ѕoup]

#HBC | Dancer

I did something I'm not proud of, but something I couldn't really control.

I don't wanna go into much else detail; nobody was hurt.

 

[~ Gheb ~]

[...] but helping to secure Russia' finances is not a deal we should be making.

Actually, it totally is.

It's also what the EU should/would be doing if it weren't such a pathetic failure.