Ask Lemmy

So, here's the deal: You've managed to acquire the data, but disaster strikes, and your time machine is destroyed by an enemy time traveler team. This is crucial historical data that you'll have to get into the future to avert the apocalypse. Due to the constraints of the space-time continuum, all time travelers staying outside of their "home" time for longer than 1 year will die, so you have exactly 1 year to prepare. How do you make sure the future discovers the data, while preventing the enemy time traveler faction from stealing the data?

(Remember: don't just chuck it in a hard drive and bury it in a forest somewhere, the data will degrade)

One could say this counts as a general question. Some of the people here, though, invoke this in ways which I find unique.

To give an idea of what this is about (by flashing back to an old no-context passage), as a certain person here has said...

Donate a thousand dollars to charity and you won't naturally get any memorial. Take two back and you have a criminal record for years. Greatly contribute to justice in a dictatorship, and it's only you who will be praised. Commit a heinous crime, though, and the punishment would be collective on your whole family. Plead guilty to a misdeed and the officers will automatically take your word for it. Admit to a good deed and they'll ask for proof. Spread a damning rumor and it will be the talk of the town. Spread an encouraging rumor and nobody will be talking. Ask if you can get recognition for donated blood, or even just meet the person you're giving to, and you will be treated as haughty. Ask why the news is always about bad things and you'll be treated as idealistic and naive.

This doesn't cover everything though. It's an issue that one can find in a lot of places.

Everywhere I look, I see people down on themselves. Do you know what they're not doing in this land imbued with ideas of freedom of speech? Living to the fullest and unleashing their inner braggart. Why do we have such a bias? A part of why I am who I am is to fight this mindset. Most people don't even question it though. How about you? And what reason do you have?

In other words, regardless of a piece being critical, it's still providing attention to and spreading awareness of its subject.

Was listening to someone from Algeria who mentioned they often have issues with lizards finding their way in homes. And I was like "at that point it sounds more like a free pet than vermin."

Also, what do you do when this happens?

Asking because there's a TV show coming out soon that I'm excited for, but I'm having flashbacks of all the times I've had to wait up to two years for something to come out, often due to delays.

Stole this one from Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/lookitup.baby/post/3lhwtrbtsjk2f

I'm a software engineer who sometimes interviews other software engineers. I'm not given a script to go off of, I get to ask them whatever I want. Usually we just talk about technology and coding from a high level. I'm not a big fan of whiteboard tests.

I've noticed, however, that a lot of people applying to software engineering jobs feel very alien to me. I started coding when I was 12 and spent most of my teenage years on technology forums. A lot of people applying to these positions are very much ladder-climbing type people who got into the career for the money. Working with these people is an absolute drag.

We also interview for "culture fit". I would like to add in a single question to my interviews to assess that: what is your favorite science fiction book. You don't even have to have read it recently, you just have to have read one and formed an opinion on it. My thoughts

Pros:

• Weeds out a lot of people since half of Americans don't read books at all.
• Theoretically filters out people who love this kind of tech subculture from people who are just in it for the money

Cons:

• It's unfair to people who enjoy fantasy novels, or any other form of fiction
• Being motivated by money probably shouldn't be a disqualifying factor (I certainly wouldn't do this job for free), I'm just tired of working with yuppies and lashing out at poor unsuspecting Jr Devs

I'm half-hearted on this. I see why it could be considered unfair but I'm really tired of the kinds of people I work with.

I don't think you would or you can support me tbh but maybe I am wrong.

It seems part of me avoids getting close to people, especially women. They are more "dangerous" than men since I won't get that close to a man.

My behavior: When I interact with a woman I find fully attractive, I push her away in various ways. This mostly started to happen after I realized and experienced how attractive I am [x].

Now I am doing these:

• I don't maintain eye contact.
• I look at everywhere but her face.
• I make my energy cold. This sometimes makes them feel a bit hurt. Then I try to be warm
• I hide my reactions that show my interest in her.
• I pretend to not hear her green lights.
• I kinda just quit talking if the conversation pulls us closer.

In the past, I was also pushing them away but it was mostly me not accepting their interest in me using various rationalizations, instead of doing the stuff above.

Details

1. If I didn't connect with the women I connected, I would be more open to connection now. Now I am like I connected with such and such, so I might connect this girl too, so I have to pre emptively push her away.
2. I feel like there is no women above my league based on my experience. So all women are dangerous.
3. I don't look like a model (yet maybe), but I am very attractive to women. I have no doubts about it. I went to therapy which led to realizations and experiences that let me write this paragraph.
4. I don't avoid a woman I find unattractive. First woman I initiated a hug towards was someone I found unattractive but I did that to be nice I guess. She was indirectly but clearly hitting on me.
5. I physically interacted with someone who was probably extremely into me (in a good way for other people). This was in a class. And I was there to clarify things with her. She made me so nervous that my body was shaking while I was interacting with other women before I interacted with her. And my face was twitching while I was touching her. I don't think this nervousness will ever happen again but I'm sharing to express my situation. She potentially acted and looked at me like she was saying yes to everything related to me and then she gave me various signs a month prior.
6. I have no problem with sex if I know there is no connection, e.g I tried escorts. Nervous a bit, mostly at first.
7. I even avoided a guy because I knew he was going to get me closer to women.
8. When I feel like I am about to get close to a woman, she sometimes appears unattractive. My avoidance influences the way I see the world. It used to influence the way I saw myself (I made myself believe I was unattractive to avoid intimacy), which therapy fixed.
9. When a woman I liked seemed like she liked me, I sweated like a mofo and I really wanted to get away from her. I went home at 2am. Couldn't sleep until 4am.
10. I talked to +700 women in person or physically interacted with them since Sep 2023. Some women I met were really great, basically amazing, I'm going to always like some of them, but, I've never met a woman who made me feel like I want to see her in my future 5+ years from now. I am familiar with e. psychology and have a relatively good understanding of how things work.
11. Universe works in insane ways for me. Despite low probability, universe really gives you what you need, if you do what you believe you should do.
12. Handshake is fine but I don't like when guys touch me either. Though I am a lot more used to touching now. Two women stood next to me, and their foot, hip and torso were touching me. Second time this happened, I felt a lot less nervous. With that said, I don't want to touch anyone unless I like them. Otherwise I don't understand the point of touching.
13. I used religion, porn, food to avoid women in the past.

Solution

• When I talk about my problem, women try to help. With the first woman I talked to abou my problem, we met again and I practiced something I haven't done in 20 years maybe. But I don't talk about my problem with women I might sleep with. Instead, I talk about my problem only with women I don't find fully attractive. These women know I'm not that into them, so its less likely for them to sleep with me. Women seem to REALLY care about being fully wanted.
• Women I interacted in person have been extremely good to me. I say this because I forced myself to be more psychically close to them so I got to know them more. So if I talk about this in person, I know they are going to help me. I just need to open my mouth, talk and be truthful instead of hiding myself or running away. It is simple but I just didn't do it yet.
• Right now I am supposed to find a therapist but it is a difficult process. And therapy doesn't fix your problem. You fix your problems. Therapy doesn't take the action for you. So going to therapy isn't going to make a huge difference for me after this point, maybe.
• I could always do stuff the normal way :D Here's an example of how that went. I once forced myself to say "I wouldn't be happy if I didn't ask you out" to someone who was kinda flirty. It was a purely sexual connection but there was not enough connection. I just asked her out to stop making an excuse to avoid women. My energy was unstable because I was nervous. And because of that, I asked her why she doesn't have a bf in a way that makes her feel not so good maybe. And at one point, there was a silence, I was looking into her eyes and maybe acting like "so we are both down but uhhh I am maybe scared to take one more step" idk honestly. She said she has to politely decline. I said okay, thank you with too much gratitude. Based on how I acted while saying thank you, it seems I was happy she rejected me. But she definely turned me on.
• If I could maintain eye contact, I think I will feel connection with some women and my energy will return. If that energy returns, I think all I have to do will be to not isolate myself. A woman suggested I fake eye contact but how do you fake eye contact if you want to avoid eye contact?

[x] This started right after therapy made me realize how hard I avoid and how my avoidance influenced my self image. Then I connected with many women. Feeling like I am really wanted ofc made me very happy. My energy grew like an avalanche. I started getting random compliments. Some women started to try to get my attention. I was sure this energy was gonna get me close to someone(s). And I was getting close to a girl which I mentioned earlier. Then I isolated myself for a month instead of letting that energy do its thing. When my energy increased, I started to wake up too early. I was sleep deprived horribly for 3 weeks. Because of that I had an accident in gym, which convinced me to use sleeping pills (doxylamine succinate). This fixed my sleep. Turns out doxylamine succinate is sedative.

i keep forgetting everything

I've been suggested Carvana, and I may end up going that way if it is indeed the simplest route.

I'm driving an older car, it's in many ways in very good condition, but the head gasket is starting to go. It hasn't gotten bad yet (no coolant in the oil... yet) and could be fixed, but the cost to fix is about three times the value of the vehicle. It's got relatively low mileage for it's age and I've barely driven it anywhere during the time that I've owned it.

I don't expect to get much for it, maybe a $400-$700 bucks, but I really don't know the best way to go around it.

Like 15 years ago I would have just listed it with pertinent info on condition and photos on Craigslist. I'm not so sure Craigslist is so viable now.

Thanks for any help you can give me, Lemmy!

This popped into my mind the other day, and I've been distracted by it since.... You know when you're trying to recall something, and a wrong answer pops into your head, but you know it's wrong. Like how does that work? E.g. if you're trying to remember who made a song, and your brain can almost simultaneously go - oh it's that band, and then oh no not them. It feels like there has to be two (at least) parts of the brain working on it at the same time.

Maybe I'll be lucky and a neuroscientist will drop in and link me to a paper. More likely it's something to discuss with wild speculation. Either way, I'm hoping writing it down will stop it distracting me.

Anything that can be used as a pronoun that isnt a noun or a number counts

Stuff on the level of "poop knife", CBAT or "It's a cylinder".

If you asked me like 4-8 years ago, I felt kind of neutral about things. Now I don't feel an ounce bit patriotic or proud enough to even state that I'm an American.

Now, when I see an American flag around, I see it as a symbol of fascism, anti-intelluctialism, neo-nazism, and late-stage capitalism amongst other things. If there's an American flag flying on a car, I can totally see that person possessing at least one of those qualities.

I suppose it's good to be self aware and not blindly feel patriotic and ignoring that your country needs improvement.

I don't know what I'm expecting in the comments here but just thought I would get this off my chest.

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/55206964

I just finished up a rewatch of Dimension 20's Neverafter (highly recommended if you haven't watched it) and as the various iconic story tellers were introduced, the question above came up in my mind.

To clarify, by fables/fairy tales I would mean widely known tales told primarily to children to pass on positive ideals and morals. Not just entertainment, but at least partially education as well. I also think it should be quite well known to count - it should at least be considered common knowledge in the region it's from. As for "modern", let's say the last 100 years or so? Though anything post-Grimm may be interesting.

Personally, I've struggled trying to think of anything particularly satisfying. Dr. Seuss feels like it's just about that iconic, though that's pretty old itself at this point. Is there anything Internet based that my out-of-touch brain is overlooking?

*Further thoughts:

Thinking on it more, other comments have helped me realize that, at least for me, the crux of the issue is that for the last 100 years or so, pretty much all stories have been commercial endeavors. Perfected drafts copywritten by companies and "protected" from the grubby hands of society. Basically the antithesis of a folk-tale, which is passed on and told and retold, shifting and morphing each time.

Thankfully, in the last few decades the internet has made less centralized media a thing again. And, though not strictly kid-friendly, I unironically am thinking that internet memes are the contemporary form of folk-tales, or at least the closest thing we've got. And I don't mean just "funny pictures", but the actual definition of meme - "an idea, behavior, or style that spreads through imitation within a culture." Perhaps that's the progenitor of the next generation of "fairy tales"?

I've lurked on reddit for the past decade or so and just wanted to get an idea of how others like me have gotten to the point where they feel more comfortable joining the conversation. Thanks, all.

There are news and information and rumors about all parts of life, just like how the internet spreads information (excluding echo chambers). Taking most recent headlines about changes to Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America. From this specific action, are there going to be severe changes to the Gulf region for oil drilling or just a small front towards a distraction but will soon have a larger ripple effect. Like there are other headlines; wars, genocide, Ebola outbreak, tuberculosis outbreak, measles outbreak, bird flu. All of these one way or another are true but somehow dwindled down. My question is in these hyper sharing and information consumption, which ones are more imperative and follow up will be necessary?

As usual, a few pointers

• [email protected]
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• https://lemm.ee/post/37715