We must establish a new order of monks, who all get up at 6am UTC. We can call them in sync

Nah, because while it would be very easy to implement something like that, it would require specifically doing it. Programmers have 3 reasons for writing code

It’s cool. It’s necessary. I was told to do it in exchange for money

(And the secret fourth reason, it just kinda happened. I was building this related thing and I realized it’d be stupid easy to toss it in…I was in a fugue state and I have no idea what I wrote, but it’s some of my best code ever)

Devs don’t generally care about this kind of thing, and most of the time neither do the business folk. This kind of unnecessary crackdown only comes up when consultants like McKinney, who I’ve recently learned are the reason everything sucks

I recommend against placing toilet paper directly inside your rectum or vagina, however.

I don’t understand. How do you use toilet paper?

I’m intrigued, I’m not a big fan of DC movies but I’m willing to give them another chance. Could you give me a quick synopsis?

The bad batch is apparently also great, along with the latest clone war seasons (according to my friend at least)

I’m just not ready… Seeing Star wars just fills me with negative feelings. I hope I’ll get there one day - I loved the EU and the more they accept back into cannon the more I want to get back into it… But I just can’t give it another chance yet

I don’t think life is rare, nor photosynthesis, but complex life might be. A planet needs to be really thriving with life for it to be worth it to go down the path to something like animals

But I think the bigger filter is much stranger.

Humans are a hive-like species. We’re not just social - we’re insanely interdependent, we don’t function on our own and yet we’ve ended up in this place where we (often) try to individually succeed, even at the cost to our community

We’re greedy enough to want the stars, yet interdependent enough we could only swarm over them in endless numbers

There’s many problems with the fermi “paradox”, but personally I think one of the largest is assuming all species would spread like a cancer blotting out the stars

A more individualistic and long lived species might instead be careful explorers, taking what they need and leaving little sign of their passage. A more communal species might be careful and control themselves to not destroy pointlessly. They might also feel no desire to contact other species

We’re just the right mix to want everything a star could give, and to want to find others at great energy cost

No, the writing was just bad.

I strongly prefer strong female leads (and my tastes only get more LGBT when it comes to novels), but those movies were terrible. Just horrendous. I still can’t bring myself to watch episode 9, or anything star wars since then

I’m not even that big a star wars fan. I love sci-fi and fantasy, because I love the new ideas they contain - star wars was never special to me, it was just good

I’ll never forget leaving the theater after episode 7, my whole department took off to see it on release. I just remember everyone being relatively satisfied, even the extreme star wars nerds, but I just looked at my team lead who I shared an office with. .

We used to talk about Star wars all the time, especially the extended universe, but we looked at each other and I saw pain in his expression, and I knew I shared the same look. I don’t think we ever spoke about Star wars again

And after episode 8, I now just feel dread when I see a blaster.

It wasn’t that nostalgic for me, it wasn’t that my standards were unreachable - they were just bad movies.

I think you’re looking at it the wrong way - triggering the flight or fight response won’t make you able to fight or flight by itself. You have to practice the responses or they’re useless - detrimental even, like a deer in the headlights

Play is a way to exercise those instincts and practice responses, but in a safe way. We even creep into the danger zone a bit sometimes, but most people (and animals) keep the danger measured

Fear isn’t pain - it’s not meant to be an absolute deterrent. It makes us think twice and go into fight or flight mode to handle a challenge - it doesn’t discourage behaviors, it moderates them. Sometimes you do have to face off a rival, or need to take a risk for a reward. It releases endorphins if we come out of it better off

So it’s not weird that we are drawn to it - horror stories/movies/games trigger it artificially, but so does fighting each other or tests of courage

I don’t think it’s weird - we’re animals, mammals and hunters no less, and animals play. If we have unstimulated instincts and free time, we find ways to exercise them

It’s kind of like the zoomies or play fighting, it’s just built into our design, for one reason or another

Now, aliens might come here and be fascinated how Earth vertebrates can even function, assuming this isn’t a common thing. But I’m guessing our social behaviors will be more mind boggling

They actually use consultants like McKinley, who are the coordinating force behind a lot of the obviously self-destructive decisions companies are making in lockstep

Jesus made a speech, they passed around the baskets his group had for the meal, and suddenly they more than enough

Do you think they had grocery stores? That they catered events? That they even had a salary, and carried money instead of food?

I don’t even know where all these numbers and money focus are coming from, but they weren’t in the text

Everyone shared their lunch… That was the whole thing. They shared the food they were initially unwilling to share, and when everyone was full (including those who came with nothing) they had baskets of leftovers

Yes, the magic of an impromptu potluck

Literally the whole point of this “miracle” was to show how if everyone pools resources, there’s more than enough to go around

But that didn’t fit the message the Romans were going for, so they magic’d it up

Glad to hear it…I also found it helpful to know about the “pregnant pause”. It’s when they just look at you silently, waiting for you to continue. It makes you want to keep talking out of awkwardness

It helps me to think of that like an invitation, I’ll think if anything else comes to mind and if I’ve got nothing left to say I’ll just wait it out

Ideas have both quality and value, and they interconnect to make the backbone of interactive experiences

That’s it exactly. The way the ideas interconnect and the way they’re presented to the player is everything. That’s execution, that’s everything - the ideas are just what’s in your head

It’s both. It’s an invitation to bring up anything recent, but you can also treat it like a normal greeting if you’d rather not go there right now.

It’s also open ended enough that you can say “I’m doing well, I’ve been thinking about my childhood a lot lately” and take the session wherever you want organically. It could also just lead into small talk while you get comfortable

Ideas are nothing. Everyone has a million daydreams, the most special and creative idea in the world is worthless if you can’t express it.

Execution is everything. Hell, you don’t even need an idea - you can draw random design elements out of a bag and come up with something great

Probably because he decided not to become a billionaire. Like he had a moment where he said “I have enough” and stopped accumulating money

I always try to ask people if they’re familiar with X. Then, if they lie to me, they can only come clean or nod along

Or if I really want to talk about the topic, I ask how much they know about X

Totally true, and also why the practice of publicly glorifying veterans in social gatherings puts me off so hard

The very shallow showing of respect is part of the recruitment effort. It seems like veterans are respected, but they’re not - they get a moment of applause during events, but it basically starts and ends there

If you’re going for a fuck you, teleport a Dr. Pepper into your head. You’d leave a big, terrifying mess to anyone who came across the scene