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WhiningCoil

Ghost of Quokka's Future

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joined 2022 September 04 23:24:47 UTC
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WhiningCoil


								

								

								
								
								

								
							
					
 
				


				
Ghost of Quokka's Future

				
				
				

				

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					joined 2022 September 04 23:24:47 UTC
				


				
					

					
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				Tinker Tuesday for January 20, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Well, I signed on the line that was dotted.  I received a life changing offer I couldn't refuse, and I couldn't be happier about the total compensation, or the work I'll be doing.


Reflections on the process:


    

  • The interviewers were just happy I actually prepared.  Read all the prep material they sent, did the leetcode problems they suggested, etc.  Apparently most people just come in off the street expecting to YOLO into a job.  I suspect this is downwind of my area being awash in people used to being a butt in seat that can be billed to the government, whether work gets done or not.
    • 

  • Having the proper qualifications to be a butt in seat still gets you a pretty good offer.  The moment my resume went up on the board people advertise such availability, I had one of the regional megacorps cold calling me with an offer that was already generous beyond my previous employer.  Was about 72 hours between the cold call, quick technical screening, offer, counter offer, and approval.  They could have probably scooped most people with that approach.  I had to stretch it out way longer to make sure I gave other opportunities a chance.
    • 

  • My wife is a former recruiter, and I think I did absolutely every single thing she told me not to do.  I said almost everything she told me not to say.  It all worked out in the end, far better than I could have ever dreamed.  I donno, maybe all that "Just be yourself" advice isn't complete bullshit after all.
    • 



				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for January 16, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Chronicles of Prydain




You know, I was just talking about this series with a friend of mine.  She's read it about a dozen times apparently, and is chomping at the bit to read it to her son.  Assured me it's very appropriate for children, and it was written by a friend of Tolkien's specifically to be a more kid accessible fantasy series than LotR proper.


I don't know if that last part is true, but that's what she told me.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 19, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


It turns out that he simply got 53% of the votes.




Yes, you gloss over the most distressing part like that somehow makes it better.  That makes it worse.  Far, far worse.  Virginia Democrats saw a candidate espouse that you should murder you political opponents children to make an example of them, and they went, enthusiastically, "That's our guy!"  I live among them.  Trust me.  They are telling you exactly who they are.  They want you (well probably not you, but definitely me) dead.  The only thing they can't agree on is the order in which my family should be murdered to cause the most anguish to the survivors in their last moments.


If it were one bad guy, maybe the next guy won't be so bad.  Maybe there will be electoral backlash.  But when voters go "No, we actually want the guy that wants to murder you", that's civil war territory.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for January 16, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


I doubt kids that have his genes will turn into uncontrollable feral monsters.




As someone who has to constantly push back on my wife's inability to have boundaries with our 6 year old, and all the attendant issues it causes, no amount of "genes" makes up for allowing your child to never be forced to respect boundaries.  These are choices, and the wrong ones make your life infinitely worse.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for January 16, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
The brainrot is real.  I don't know how much of it is phones, short form content, people not reading anymore, microplastics clogging up our brains, metabolic dysfunction from shitty diets, or what.


I will say, reading more, eating better, exercising regularly and fasting has helped my mental clarity enormously.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for January 16, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


I now do wonder how Scott expects to avoid this particular outcome or if he's accepting it as probably baked in and just wants to make sure he leaves the greatest possible legacy he can, on top of his kids.




I don't know if you saw everyone on Twitter clowning on Scott's post about how he's lost complete control of his kids.  I'm pretty sure Scott already fell into... whatever you call that outcome.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for January 16, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Congrats!  Marriage and kids are fantastic.  Highly recommend it.  Made every aspect of my life and myself better.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for January 16, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Every nerd who was the smartest kid in their high school goes to an appropriately-ranked college and realizes they’re nothing special. But also, once they go into some specific field they find that intellect, as versatile as it is, can only take them so far. And for someone who was told their whole childhood that they were going to cure cancer (alas, a real quote from my elementary school teacher), it’s a tough pill to swallow.




Man, I am so profoundly lucky I had two teachers that I think changed my life.


The first was my middle school social studies teacher.  In the mid 1990's she had finished her service in the Navy or Army, I can't remember, and become a teacher.  She was black pilled as fuck about the future of the country and constantly told us we weren't going to have it as easy as our boomer parents.  For whatever reason it made a deep impression on me and I adjusted my expectations accordingly.


The second was my high school calculus teacher.  I slept through his class and consistently got top scores.  He wrote me a whole ass page long note on the back of one of my tests, because I was never awake in class for him to talk to.  It was all about how he'd seen kids like me before, who were never properly challenged and developed poor study habits.  That if I didn't reform my ways, I'd either flunk out of college or flounder professionally.  Coming from any other teacher, I probably would have blown off the advice.  But he always had my back, and generally had an attitude of "If he gets A's, he can sleep through class if he wants" with me.  His message of support, but concern, resonated deeper than 12 years of just having teachers yell at me to get my shit together.


Because there is this really toxic part of nerd culture, where the motto is "Work smarter, not harder".  But then they melt down in seething rage when someone works smart and hard and utterly mogs them on their own turf.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for January 16, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I have bad news for you.  Nearly every single one of those qualities existed in pre-WoW MMOs.  It did not encourage rewarding and positive social interactions like you imagine it would.  The flaw in all these "And then they'll have no choice but to develop deeper bonds and trust each other!" theories is that users can just start a new account.  They might even have one account for griefing and another account for teamwork.  They might swoop in with their griefing account in a coup de grace moment using insider information from their pro-social account.  This was basically how I remember Ultima Online and Everquest playing like, and how Dark Age of Camelot looked watching some of my old LAN party buddies play.


There was a time in Dark Age of Camelot in particular that was brutal.  I might get some of the details wrong, or maybe even have the wrong game entirely.  Could have been Asheron's Call.  But I think it was DAoC.  There was some highly coveted spawn point that had a small percent chance to drop an extremely coveted rune that was essential to the game economy.  The various guilds had basically agreed on a turn system so that access to the spawn point was distributed fairly, and enforced it vigorously.  Any line jumpers or griefers became kill on sight to this alliance of guilds.


Anyways, my old LAN friends somehow managed to jump the line, murder the guild who's turn it was, steal the rune, and then somehow still frame the other guild as the guilty party.  The consequences were quite dire for those poor bastards, and my friends gloated about it for the entire weekend.


No, people are rat bastards, and no amount of encouragement can get defect-bots to stop being defect-bots.  Not in real life, and especially not in virtual worlds where you can just put on a new face effortlessly.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for January 16, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I think losing my old job the way I did hit me with some deep rooted impostor syndrome.  I'm probably going to spend the next 3 weeks until my start date studying up on what they told me about their tech stack so far.  It's a senior position, so I feel like I need to show up like I know things.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for January 16, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Man, I don't know how you do it.  I know another guy like you, who just quits jobs, lives off savings, and fucks around for months to years.  Then when that runs out he just gets another job, white knuckles it as long as he can, and repeats.


I was out of my fucking brain 3 weeks into joblessness.  I went from "I'm going to have so much fun making a game while I look for work" to "FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK I NEED TO UPDATE ALL MY SKILLS AND LEARN EVERYTHING OR MY FAMILY WILL STARVE AND I'LL DIE ALONE!"  I kept asking him how he does it, but I guess the answer is just that we're built totally different.


Anyways, that's all over with now.  But man, I am not built to be jobless until I well and truly discover an infinite money glitch.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for January 16, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I've found being actually unemployed a great way to appreciate that very boring and stupid corporate job.  Having a mortgage, and tuition, and healthcare, and groceries piling up with no income really takes the romanticism out of blowing up your life.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Tinker Tuesday for January 13, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Well, had a whopper of an interview today.  Got really good feedback, and will supposedly have an answer by tomorrow.


I may yet be saved from the Java Dungeon.  .Net master race 4 lyfe!


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 12, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


I do not feel the same. I believe very heartily that a world in which everyone has everything they want is superior to one in which only the virtuous do (although I'm comfortable with prioritizing the virtuous if it's necessary to prioritize someone, a la this SSC post).




Have you ever consider that what the unvirtuous want could be zero sum with what the virtuous want?  Say, for example, to murder me, bath in my blood and rape my wife.  Or maybe break into random homes and stab children to death cause YOLO why not?


Evil exists and requires planning around.  Not enabling because you want everyone to get what they want and be happy.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 12, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I can only give this advice, and this is buried deep enough, and so few people will see it, I'm going to drag out some real-ish numbers.


Last year I paid over $36,000 in taxes.  I saved less than $8000 post taxes, and the government shutdown drove the company I worked for out of business.  I have an offer on the table already, and maybe a better one coming soon, fingers crossed.  So you know, I'll be alright.  Just sayin' though.


Over the course of my life, because I've kept meticulous notes, I've saved about $165,000.  That's about 20 years of post-tax savings.  Some years were better, some years were terrible.  My best year I saved about $32,000 (that was a mad dash year).  My worst year I only saved about $2,500.


The year I bought my house, I put down nearly everything I had that wasn't in my 401k, brokerage or crypto.  I think it was nearly half of everything I had liquid.  It was probably the single scariest financial decision I ever made in my life.


That was almost 5 years ago now.  I'm in my 40's now.  My wife just turned 40.  My accounts have done tremendously well.  The balance barely reflects the amounts I mentioned up above.  It's borderline "Fuck you" money.  It also bares little resemblance to my income which continues to just barely cover my essentials, plus one emergency per year, plus a little net savings.  I consider myself profoundly lucky I found not just one but two 10x or more investments.  In another life I'd have 1/10th of what I actually do.


But we still lost out on our youth.  We're having one last kid.  That makes a grand total of two, and this last one is a squeaker.  For years my heart broke that I aged out of having as many kids as I wanted, while I was struggling to achieve the material necessities I felt I needed to do right by them.  I still don't have as many kids as I wanted, but I suppose two will have to suffice.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 12, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


a vast majority of people would in fact consider it mean to stop someone who wants children from having them.




I'm taxed so much supporting other people's kids, I haven't been able to afford having as many kids as I would have liked.


Solve that riddle in your "lets just give everyone as much as they need" moral system.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 12, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
You know what, my first comment was excessive, I apologize, but let me also clear some things up.


I don't want nobody to have candles.  I want a candle too!  But I've spend the last 40 years of my life paying for candles for other people, and bafflingly, have been unable to afford one myself.


Lets drop the candle metaphor for one minute.


I didn't become a home owner until damned near 40.  I didn't qualify for any assistance, I had to go it the slow way, saving as much as I could.  Savings that got diminished year after year to inflation because the government keeps driving up the national debt on wars and welfare.  Meanwhile, the government also subsidized home buying for the needy more and more.  Not for me, I can go fuck myself, but for everyone else.  Driving prices further and further out of my reach.


One year I asked for, and got, a big honking raise, saved enough in a desperate push to put me over the finish line, and bought a home with a 75 minute (one way) commute.


I wanted my children to grow up in a community like I did, where effectively nobody is ever murdered.  Unfortunately, in the name of being heckin' nice people and making sure everyone (except me) is happy, governments keep losing their damned minds and viewing it as some sort of moral imperative to keep insane violent felons on the streets as much as possible.  Their happiness and my happiness is truly zero sum.


I wanted my children to get the same sort of education I did, with relatively good and safe schools.  Unfortunately, in the name of being heckin' nice people, that went right out the window.  We invited the entire third world, with gangs and drugs and the occasional dismemberment murder into our school districts whole sale.  They are "sanctuaries" now.  You couldn't pay me enough to subject my child to that environment.  So I'm effectively taxed again finding alternative arrangements.  It's causing me to have less children than I would like.


So here I am, deeply struggling to maintain a standard of living I grew up with, every public institutions inhospitable to me, every public good denied me, and then people tell me "Well, we should still give as much as is actually possible".  Fuck, I've had enough stolen from me as is and you want more?  How many more years of my life do I need to waste chasing a moving goalpost while others just get it handed to them?  How many more children will I give up bringing into this world because so much has been taken from me and given to others than I can't afford them, while others just thoughtless pound them out and then ask me to support their kids?  Like I wouldn't like kids of my own that will need support.


You can only call me a ghoul, because you have no idea how much has already been stolen.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 12, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
So TLDR: Asking for a limiting principle makes me a bad person, so you aren't going to give me one because bad people don't deserve answers.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 12, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Actually possible still just rounds off to everything.  Give me a limiting principle besides "Gosh, I'm a heckin' nice person and I don't understand why you are being so cruel."


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 12, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


and just keep giving them more and more and more forever because resources aren't finite.




Finish the sentence.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 12, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


People like you who think "some people are dumber than others" is equivalent with "dumb people don't deserve to be happy and safe"




I believe every person deserves to be as happy and safe as they can accomplish themselves.  I don't understand why anybody should be charged with doing it for them, especially to their own detriment.  That just inverts the roles.  You want to make those incapable of taking care of themselves (or their families) my master.


And we're right back to what I was saying.  Leftist clamor for a dictatorship of the proletariat.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 12, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
You don't say?


Hey, random question, what's the markdown tag for sarcasm?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 12, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


We’ve engaged in a concerted propaganda campaign for decades suggesting that because moral equality is mandatory, biological identity must also be mandatory. This makes it practically unthinkable to consider that it’s perfectly possible to construct a political system that grants equal rights to all citizens while acknowledging that not everyone can visualize a rotating 3D cube with equal fidelity. But biting that bullet feels dangerous to many. It feels like opening the door to old aristocracies. So instead, we pretend the differences don't exist, which inadvertently creates a new aristocracy of "people who know the right shibboleths."




I wish this was driven by a fear of aristocracy, but I don't think it is.  Many of these same people scream for a dictator of the proletariat.  They imagine themselves as the rightful aristocracy because they are just heckin' good people, you know?  And if they had absolute power they'd show it to you.


No, the fear of noticing is driven by a paranoia of Eugenics.  If we abandon people to the consequences of their choices, or heaven forbid their children, then that's nearly the same as putting them on a train to the nearest extermination camp.  No, instead the moral thing to do is to feed, clothe and house them and allow them to have as many kids as they want, and just keep giving them more and more and more forever because resources aren't finite.  LBJ won a Nobel Prize for inventing the free lunch.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 12, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


When you ask such a question, most people in their heads would envision a car already at reasonable speed intentionally crashing into a cop, not a scenario which was visible from the various footages here.




Hard disagree!  And I think the only reason you think that is because suddenly, the entire discourse is revolving around everyone being a fictitious expert in exactly was sort of pedestrian-vehicle collisions you are allowed to fear for your life in.  Prior to this being such a scissor statement, I believe most people would have said "All of them.  Are you retarded?"  Now, suddenly, because one side can't be correct unless there are hairs to split, people are parsing the exact position of the pedestrian and the SUV, the exact speed they were going, the exact point of impact, the exact angle of the tires.  It's all bullshit, it's all hindsight, and it's a standard that no one has ever applied to hitting a pedestrian before in the entire history of cars hitting humans.  Ask the poor schmuck who got railroaded into several life sentences at Charlottesville!


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Tinker Tuesday for January 13, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Yeah, I'm stilling holding out for a better offer from the other place.  Their tech stack is .net which I've spent the majority of my career in, so it's a much better fit.  Plus I've received every indication the pay will be better too.