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PaperclipPerfector  2d ago (text post)   1768 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for May 25, 2025

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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True to my word, I recently acquired oral semaglutide. I've been aware of the drug since initial weight loss trials, and the moment it was available, I got my diabetic and overweight mom to begin it. She had a rough start, the nausea and GI upset was unpleasant to say the least, but it settled down and she's fine now, probably lost 5kg. My current goal is to convince her to increase her dose from 7mg to the next step up, which is long overdue.

I gained about 5-6 kilos over about 4 months, both because of starting an antidepressant that increases appetite, and because a change in workplace made me far more sedentary.

This, alongside a recent breakup, jogged me into gear. I've begun working out, aiming for muscular hypertrophy rather than strength. No point being able to lift a boulder if you don't look it. However, the semaglutide works, and has drastically slashed my appetite. My body only wants about half what I'd normally eat, and I have to force myself to eat more despite feeling full.

My question is, to what extent can I achieve both significant weight loss as well as some muscle gain? Due to recent weight gain, I believe I could manage a mild to moderate caloric deficit (~10%) without overly compromising my gains, as long as I consume enough protein. To the more experienced gym goers here, does that sound correct? Any tips or tricks?

(I'll buy some creatine soon enough, stuff works)

The conventional wisdom and proper scientific studies will tell you that you can't do it. I'll tell you that you can in certain limited circumstances but that getting on Semiglutide and trying to force yourself to eat more protein to gain muscle feels like a bit of a self-licking ice cream cone. You'd be much better off cycling from trying to build muscle to trying to cut weight. When you try to build muscle while also trying to restrict your appetite to lose weight, there's a risk you aren't going to do either, and you're going to find yourself months from now having achieved neither. I've never tried it with semaglutide, but I speak from experience on the topic. That said, here's my largely woo-woo experience with recomping.

I assume when you're saying you're doing hypertrophy-focused workouts you mean moderate-to-high reps in lots of exercises? Don't do that. Everyone I know who hops on semaglutide, and most people on cuts anyway, lack energy so you don't want to be trying to do long workouts with tons of sets of tons of exercises. You'll wear yourself out and increase the likelihood of injury.

What you want to do if you want to retain muscle and maybe build a little, while losing fat is two things: convince your body that it needs as much muscle as possible, while also convincing your body that it needs to be lighter. Do the former by doing low-rep high-intensity work in the weightroom, do the latter by doing bodyweight exercises.

I'm convinced that the body is "smarter" than we think it is in terms of building muscle or burning fat, in repsonse to the stimuli it gets from the outside world. Your body interprets calorie restriction as famine, food is less available. In that scenario, if you don't need maximum strength, your body is going to discard muscle as unnecessary. But just a few sets of high intensity lifts, and your body is going to assume that it needs that muscle to keep getting food in a famine environment, and will preserve it.

Similarly, if you're doing a lot of pull ups and push ups, climbing, muscle ups, etc your body knows that the resistance it faces is relative to its own weight and wants to reduce the load, or at least not increase it, and responds by leaning out. Exercise science tells us that resistance is resistance, but popular myth will point out that push ups and pull ups lean you out in ways that lifting never does.

This is my wild speculation on the topic at hand.

Based on a vague recollection of your training history, you should be able to at least temporarily recomp effectively.

One of the nice things about strength vs muscular mass is it's much easier to measure benchmarks , especially with respect to proficiency. For someone with no training history they should be able to go from untrained to somewhere in the novice/intermediate range while maintaining or even losing weight. My recollection is you had taken training "some what seriously" before, which probably brought you to mid-intermediate. In that case it should take 50-75% of the time it took the first time to reach the same place. All doable while in a 0.25-0.5% BW per week lost deficit. So if you went from a 65kg to a 100 kg bench in 9 months before, myonuclei retention might get you there in in 4-6 months. There is a bit of a compounding effect where if you stop and restart repeatedly strength and size seem to come back even faster. Longer if it's been more than 4 years. Beyond the proficient level and outside of a retraining effect recomping is a slow and painful process.

Protein recommendations I would still shoot for the tried and true 1 g/lb body weight. 2 g/kg bw for round metric numbers is probably fine. There had been some (pretty sus) analysis that got cemented as lore for lower recommendations. The newer stuff seems to have rediscovered the tried and true. Why would you expect a hard threshold in the first palce? If you are not that lean 1 g/cm height works surprisingly well as a benchmark. The easiest way to drastically increase protein uptake is to have a pre and post workout whey shake. Whey is very fast digesting so should not decrease appetite much for your "normal" meals. If you don't want to do dairy for some reason brown rice/pea combo, or soy protein is probably fine. If you are worried about phytoestrogens from soy, corner an endocrinologist in a dark corner of the hospital and wring the truth out of them. Report back what exactly the deal is with phytoestrogens is, I'm interested in knowing.

You over-estimate my previous progress. I was working out in a highly suboptimal manner, and several years back. That being said, I can tell that some muscle memory is still there, as I remember that my initial forays into working out were far more painful.

Thanks for the detailed advice! I'm concerned about how I can pay you back with a review of phytoestrogens. I'm no expert on that topic, but I, with low confidence, remember that my previous reviews of it put it into the "low concern" category. This shouldn't substitute a more informed opinion.

Has anyone else here played Clair Obscure: Expedition 33? I'm finding it incredible so far.

I got a couple of hours in, and I'm really torn between wanting to see more of the story, and intensely disliking JRPG turn-based combat with quicktime events. (Yes, I set the difficulty to Story mode and win most fights handily, but I still don't enjoy doing them.)

I checked out the prologue, didn't proceed any further yet. That far in, it seemed fairly strong except for the combat. I doubt there's any way to make JRPG combat worth the time.

Maybe I'll give it a go if and when I have more time.

Ahhh but the story. The STORY!!!!

I'm still working my way through the game and enjoying it a lot.

Currently playing and enjoying it, especially the aesthetics. I suck at parrying in every game that has it but with the difficulty on easy and with the right passive abilities I can mostly ignore that.

The dreamy beauty of the overworld (especially with that music) is a particular high point.

Yeah the music is incredible. The music for the opening cinematic blew me away.

Gonna use this as the games thread.

Haven't played any games for a couple of weeks. Might pick Oblivion back up again. Or start on Tainted Grail the Fall of Avalon. It's supposed to be very good. :)

I finished it about a week ago. I enjoyed it quite a bit, though I did find the heavy emphasis on real time elements annoying at times. But the gameplay was generally solid, the story was excellent, the music was excellent... the game really just fired on all cylinders. Similar to @naraburns I had the thought that I hope Square-Enix is taking notes, because this is what I wanted Final Fantasy to be like for the last 20 years instead of the hot mess it has been. I doubt it, but one can hope.

I finished it last week; I enjoyed it a lot. It was quite reminiscent of the Final Fantasy 7/8/9/10 era, just brought up to date.

Probably my only complaint is that I don't always love the level design. Mazes and backtracking (and garbage platforming) extend play time without enhancing fun. Everything else, though--music, combat, voice acting, visuals--was excellent. It's basically everything I once hoped we might get out of an FF7 remake, plus an original story in a freshly imagined world.

Where does one "acquire" Windows 10 LTSC? My understanding is that the LTSC version is pretty good and doesn't have the various annoyances MS has added over the years (nags to upgrade downgrade to Windows 11, ad notifications, etc). I don't use Windows much these days but I'm sick of them having ruined the operating system which I paid for ex post facto. So I'm thinking it's time to hoist the black flag and install a version which actually works well, but I'm not sure where to get that.

https://massgrave.dev/windows_ltsc_links

Anyone have advice on entry-level induction cooking?

I'm in the market for a new 30' range and gas isn't an option. I'm trying to keep it under $3000. With cursory searching, people seem real positive on induction and with most comments agreeing it's flat out better than glass-top radiant heat and there's no reason to even consider the more outdated technology. However with more searching I'm running into potential issues with the more entry-level ranges; smaller magnets than advertised that won't effectively heat larger pans, only 1-9 heat settings not offering very granular temperature control, claims that elements pulse fully on then off slowly to simulate low temperatures (with the responsiveness of induction this seems like a much larger issue than the same method on a radiant cook top), and faulty electronics leading to quick and steep repair costs.

Am I price wise just in a bad zone for induction? I could get a perfectly fine radiant electric with a convection oven for half the cost of the Bosch or Cafe models of induction. Also, does anyone have any good resources or tips on how to research these things? I'm having a really hard time finding basic information like how big the magnets in a cook top are vs the size the company advertises.

Thanks in advance!

The only piece of advice I'll give is that 10 heat settings are plenty to me on the induction cooktop I've used. Maybe it has 20? (half steps for each digit).

I can't stand radiant heat cooktops anymore after using induction. They're so slow, so stupid. The only reason I'm putting up with it at home right now is I may move in the next 6 months.

Every induction hob I have used - and I have used a professional 3.5kw for my home for long years is bang bang for low power. This is not fun if you need gentle simmer. 300w/s and 1200 for a second every 4 is not quite the same if you don't have huge thermal buffer.

The other problem is that they have a quite stupid overheat protection and don't allow you to properly run hot something for searing.

If those two things are no issue for you - it's the best tech there is.

I'd say that the only real issue of those you raised is lack of granular heat control, which is often an issue with radiant heat as well.

Beyond that I'd argue strongly for getting something with knobs rather than touch controls. Touch controls are both really inconvenient and to some extent actively dangerous as they can get triggered by anything, utensils, spilled water, etc. I'm not aware of any brand at any price level that handles this well; I've never encountered it. My impression is that this is an area where touch controls are just a plain bad idea and they're used because it looks sleek and "modern" as well as maybe a cost saving measure.

You should probably be able to get something good for 3k or maybe marginally more depending on local pricing.

I prefer induction to radiant heat but the difference isn't massive so if cost was a concern ($1000~ difference for something you use daily and lasts a decade+ seems very small to me) I would probably go for radiant heat.

The last place I rented had an expensive-ish Smeg induction hob. Italian so inevitably it had reliability issues, but when it worked it worked very well, and in fact much better than gas (normally my preference) at certain things.

What do I mean by that? Heating up water especially. It had a ‘power’ mode that could, in less than 2 minutes, bring a large pot of water to the boil. I presume this took a great amount of electricity (although I don’t remember a measurable impact on bills) but it was extremely convenient when making pasta or boiling potatoes or whatever.

The downside is, as @sarker suggests, that it constantly beeps at you when water or utensils are on the stovetop. The upside is, I imagine especially if you have kids, that you can touch it even when it’s ‘hot’ and it’s fine.

Smeg

https://youtube.com/watch?v=NTMINrFtPlU&pp=ygUOcmVkIGR3YXJmIHNtZWc%3D

I presume this took a great amount of electricity (although I don’t remember a measurable impact on bills) but it was extremely convenient when making pasta or boiling potatoes or whatever.

Induction stovetops are as efficient as electric kettles at boiling water. Probably more so if you cover the pot.

I presume this took a great amount of electricity (although I don’t remember a measurable impact on bills)

It shouldn't take any more than any other type of electric heat. In fact, I'd suspect it's negligibly cheaper to heat water in two minutes instead of 20: You have to add the same amount of net thermal energy to the pot, but you aren't losing heat from a 20-99C pot for the other 18 minutes.

Yes, I guess you’re right. I imagined there might be some kind of additional inefficiency, but probably not.

I can't help you with any of your questions, but I've used a Miele induction cooktop with touch controls and that thing is fucking garbage. Utensils constantly triggering the touch controls, something is always randomly turning it off, and it's hard to use when the surface gets greasy.

I guess what I'm saying is, proceed with caution around touch controls. It's possible that other brands do a better job, but Miele is really not entry level.

You Have One Missed Message

I just had the queerest thing happen to me. The chain of causality runs long, serpentine but taut, and sometimes arcs towards serendipity.

A long time ago, my best friend at the time had/didn't have a thing with this girl in law school. He says they were dating, she says they were just friends. I don't care either way.

After they fell out, the last conversation I had with her was her asking me how many modafinil tablets it took to get high. I cursed myself for mentioning it, and quite truthfully said she could have the entire pack if she wanted. She wouldn't get high, except from the ensuing insomnia and sleep deprivation. It's a funny drug, it'll give you euphoria the very first time you try it and never again. She'd already sampled it once and felt the rush. She wouldn't take me at my word, argued about it and called me a kill-joy, and we fell out of touch.

Fast forward half a dozen years. This was about a year back, when I'd just found out I had matched into psych in the UK, and was suitably psyched out. I was on a dating app, when I see this very familiar looking chick. Right swipe, match. Same lady, but she made it clear she wasn't looking to date but was down to hangout, and lived just down the road from me.

While slightly disappointed, I think it's entirely possible to have platonic relationships with the other sex, and we began catching up for tea and other calming substances after work. We got pretty close, which was the excuse I needed to try and beat some sense into her, or at least the desire to see a legitimate shrink ASAP. Girl had issues, and some pretty bad trauma.

Eventually, she invited me to her birthday, which was an unusual event. I'd never seen a burning joint substituting for a candle on the cake, though that makes age easier to hide I guess?

While I was pleasantly inebriated, I was taken aside by our hostess and informed that my medical talents were needed. Her best friend, who made excellent THC cup cakes, was somewhere in the overlapping region of the Venn diagram between fucking drunk, fucking high, and emotionally screwed up. She was worried, and wanted me to keep watch.

Well, I was a bit miffed at being kicked out of the life of the party, but I did my duty. Poor girl took the opportunity to vent, she had a lot on her mind, and it persisted despite everything trying to clear it. I did a pretty decent job of consoling her, and ensuring her airway wasn't at risk during the dips. (I'm very good at being there for people, the same skills transfer between drunk-sitting and dementia patients) Eventually, I was relieved, and thought no more about it.

Cue another year passing in a flash. I'd bungled an initial attempt to migrate my old WhatsApp account and number, and had given up and just made a new one. The old one languished on an even older phone. I got back home, my brother, always a tech nerd, wanted to appropriate said phone. I talked him down into just putting it on charge, after ages.

When I checked back, I saw a message form lawyer chick that had languished on a single tick for months. It sounded urgent.

I called her up, and to my surprise, the reason behind the phone call was as follows:

Her best friend, from the party, had been hanging out with a close friend of her own. Circumstances unknown prompted Best Friend to, of all things, open up my insta account or other social media, and show her my account. She said she liked me, and asked her to acquire my number.

My Lawyer Friend, well, she was a good winglady. She explained that I was working in the UK, and might have a girlfriend. She heard a quick discussion on the other end, and heard from Best Friend that this wasn't an issue. She went on to do her due diligence, and asked if the girl was pretty. Pretty pretty!

That's when she'd texted me, but had gone unread for ages. She asked me if I was single rn, and still interested? Turns out I was single, having just had a pretty amicable breakup, and fuck it, I'm on vacation with little to do.

I had very little in the way of actual aspirations here. Women are notoriously unreliable when it comes to gauging reporting the attractiveness of their friends or sex. If I had a dollar for every mid girl getting gassed up on Instagram, I'd own it. This was just after I went on a spirited defense of my intent to get plastic surgery done, so one can imagine my suspicions.

With my assent, and instructions to hand out my number to future callers (who were cute girls) without question, I laid back and waited. Sure enough, a few hours later, I got a text from an unknown number. It was her. She went ahead and introduced herself, revealing that she had an unusual name. While initial introductions and my initiation of flirtation commenced, I began surreptitiously scoping her out on Instagram. Only fair, after what she and her buddy had done. Turns out I only knew her first name, and that narrowed it down to about 15 women.

12/15 of them were pretty, which piqued my interest. That's an insane hit rate, I began to slightly get my hopes up.

She asked me about my whereabouts. I quite truthfully explained I was only back in India for 2 weeks, of which one had mostly elapsed. This was met by an oh. And a few minutes of silence. I was entirely expecting it to be a deal breaker.

To my surprise, she went ahead with the conversation. It got pretty late, we texted past midnight, and I decided that I'd done enough of what the kids call "rizzing" and asked her out for coffee. She exclaimed at my forwardness, but said yes.

I had a long day, with a lot of traveling, but I made it back home in time to have a quick shower, and change into decent clothes. We'd planned a café in advance, and I got there bang on time.

And waited.

She texted me saying that she would be 10 minutes late. Never one to let an opportunity go, I told her that I'd let 10 minutes pass, and then assume the prettiest girl around was her and go ahead and join them.

She was twenty minutes late, rushing in, and I'm glad that I had hadn't taken that literally, because she was gorgeous.

I'd seen a few pretty women walk in, and got my hopes up each time it was her, only to be disappointed. She kicked them all to the curb.

It was a fun date. She turned out to be a lawyer, I explained that I was a very well-behaved guy who had had no run-ins with the law. We spoke, went out for a smoke, and spoke some more till the staff politely informed us that it was closing time at around 10.30 pm.

I had to ask what piqued her interest in the first place. I've had my share of luck with the ladies, a handful had slid into DMs, but this was all new. She told me that she'd had a breakup a while back, and had been disappointed with the men around. She'd vented to her best friend, and said best friend had decided to dig up my insta while exclaiming that I was a gentleman who'd been nothing but kind to her when she was in a bad place. This, plus a flattering assortment of photos, made her bite the bullet and ask for my contact details.

I was a tad bit disappointed when she told me, pretty quickly into the date, that she wasn't looking for anything serious or long-term. She wasn't a big fan of the institution of holy matrimony, but then again she's a lawyer. She looked at me expectantly for a reply, and I quite truthfully told her I'd come here with few expectations and an open mind. This was the right answer, but I had to suppress a wave of sadness. She's just my type. She's fun to talk to, when all I knew of her was just a blank profile picture and a name. She's pretty, and laid-back, and..

She told me I was handsome, and asked me if I worked out. I said I'd just restarted after ages, that shirt must have been flattering. She called me a gentleman, because I'd held doors open for her, showed up on time, and picked out a spot for our date. I told her that I was very grateful for the really low quality of the male species in these parts, because it took me just the bare minimum of courtesy to stand out. She laughed, and smiled at me in a way that made my heart ache.

I told her I was a hopeless romantic, only somewhat beaten straight by the baseball bat of life. She told me the same. She asked me when I'd be back in town again. I told her that my allotment of annual leave would refresh in August (why is it called annual if it works on a semi-annual basis?), and that I was thinking about coming back pretty soon right after. This was half a lie. I was actually planning on November or December, when my homesickness reached zenith and Scotland's human habitability reached its nadir. Looking at her, I felt like I need to be back earlier.

I'm eliding a lot of detail here, which is omitted to avoid boring you, the reader. Imagine a lot of shameless flattery, terrible puns, and debates about AI. At one point, she claimed that everyone must have heard of ElevenLabs when I'd told her I was impressed by the fact she knew of it. To prove my point, I asked the dude at the table next to me if he had, to frank confusion. 1-0. Maybe I'll write a version of this essay for myself, and posterity's sake. This will likely end in heartbreak, life has just taken us different places. Yet life is short, and there's a breeze about this summer evening.

We'd left planning a second date tomorrow. I just confirmed it. Wish me luck.

Good luck, man. Hopefully it goes well!

Good luck!

Appreciate it!

So, what are you reading?

Still on the Iliad, Dialectic of Enlightenment and McLuhan's Classical Trivium. Trying Individuals and Institutions in Medieval Scholasticism.

Read Liar's Poker by Michael Lewis, a memoir about Lewis's time working at an investment bank during the 1980s. Interesting at the start but became a slog. That was my third Michael Lewis book, and I think I'm finished reading his material. The premises always sound more interesting than the content.

Currently reading When The Going Was Good by Graydon Carter, a memoir about Carter's time working in New York City magazines during the 80s, 90s and 00s. The book's a lot of fun, a 180 from Liar's Poker.

A little over halfway through Cryptonomicon. Very, very enjoyable so far.

Oh man, this guy gets to read the second half of Cryptonomicon for the first time.

I'm always in torture arguing with myself about whether it's too soon to read it (yet) again. I think it's been every 3-4 years.

I find myself re-reading The Worm Ourobouros immediately after finishing it. I suppose it wasn't long enough. Or I suppose it's just thematically fitting to go in cycles here.

I also stuck my nose into Ninti's Gate, which turned out to be...a drag, so far. Being a well-read and well-spoken youtuber does not on its own make one a good writer, it seems. Feels somewhat like mid-20th-century sci-fi fanfiction.

Also got a good way into Les Trois Mousquetaires, properly in French, in audiobook format. A lot goes right over my head, and listening to it in the car means I can't just look things up as I go, but I get the gist of it. Not ideal, but works to knock some of the rust off of my French.

I actually like Nintis Gate, though I agree it's not ground breaking, and somewhat retro. Good rather than great is where im currently slotting it. Generally speaking I haven't had great luck in books I got from YouTubers/vloggers, so you're onto something with your larger point.

Thanks for the input. I'll try to stick with it a little longer then.

Les Trois Mousquetaires

Don't forget to check out the sequels as well. Twenty Years After is reasonably fun, but Ten Years Later may put you to sleep.

Still on The Fortune of War. The American upstarts are fighting His Majesty's Navy. How dare they?

Reading some Anne Tyler (who is famous for setting her books in Baltimore), a collection of Argentinian horror stories (las cosas que perdimos en el Fuego) and Il deserto dei Tartari (The Tartar Steppe). The last of these I am reading in English alongside the Italian.

Reverend Insanity. Again. How I missed it.

I held off on a re-read for as long as I could, in the hopes that fading memory would enhance the experience. That didn't last, but it's still great even knowing what to expect.

Again? I'm at about 1/3 of it and at this point I'm convinced that if I ever finish it it'll exceed my Recommended Lifetime Xianxia Intake.

It feels like even the aha! of seeing the foreshadowing wouldn't be there because every time something that was foreshadowed hits home, the novel reminds us 10 times to make sure we got it.

I bounced off pretty hard myself. I don't mind it being a brutal world but it felt like the author repeatedly set up situations where the MC could act as a psychopath and it being acceptable "in universe" but for no meaningful material gain, despite the MC supposedly being this hundreds of years old rational person. It felt too much like entering the author's edgelord magical realm for my taste.

Its a shame because some of the world building was really interesting.

I'm just grateful you're sticking to it. It only gets better, and on a re-read, I like the start despite its slow pacing.

RI does have author exposition pointing out the foreshadowing, but it's not lampshading. Half the time, I as the reader didn't even notice the foreshadowing, and then was hit with an "aha!" moment when things came together. A lot of things make perfect sense in hindsight, though the author isn't shy about showing that he did his homework.

A few things on the go.

  • Fiction - The Secret History (Donna Tartt) - which I think was recommended here recently.
  • Finance - Debt: The First 5000 Years (David Graeber) - re-teaching me things I already know about the way the world works.
  • Race - The Barn (Wright Thompson) - I would read Wright Thompson transcribing the phone book. Also, I’m not American, so it’s good to get an understanding of this from the pen of a master.

Still on The Perfect Heresy. It's a lot more accessible than the last book I read about the Cathars (Montaillou) but still a bit difficult in absolute terms. The voice is a bit droning and I sometimes forget how a paragraph started by the time I get to the end of it.

Gate Crashers, by Patrick S. Tomlinson. Good read, but really not living up to the favorable comparison to Douglas Adams that helped get me to bite, either.

I just had my bike kicked out from under me by a pedestrian while I was stopped in a cross walk. I shouldn't have been in the cross walk (and I won't in the future, at least for the next week), but I also would have happily moved if he asked, or he could have, you know, walked one foot to the right and went around me. My bike weighs about 10 pounds so I was fine, but because he was black (and I'm white) I was seething with racial animosity on the rest of my ride home. On one level I recognize that this is obviously irrational (and racist), but at the same time I have had so many negative interactions with black people in this city (Baltimore) that I'm starting to wonder if there maybe is some truth in the HBD/race realist positions.

Something stark that the Floydenning taught me was that black people really are living their lives assuming that whites absolutely hate their guts. It was a shock to me how unified the black voices were in the chorus against widespread white hatred. And in a way it was a bit of telling on themselves for how tightly woven into their worldviews general racial animosity is. I wondered if their models for how they assumed whites spoke of blacks in unmixed company mirrored black people's true experience of the inverse.

I know for a fact that white people self-police among themselves for distasteful and inappropriate stereotyping. And I no longer make such assumptions for other racial groups.

There was no real question in your Sunday questions thread post. So I'll answer a question you didn't ask: Yes, you should get out of Baltimore. How did you end up there anyway?

I'm doing my PhD at Hopkins. I'll be done by May 2026 probably.

Godspeed son.

What, your wheels were in the crosswalk zone while you were in the road? On what fucking planet is that a justification for someone kicking you off your bike?

A lot of discussion about who wins in racial fights downthread. I've probably seen more interracial fights than most. Numbers and viciousness are the biggest factors in who wins. Honestly man, this has very little to do with HBD and more to do with black people hating you. You're in a city where racial animus is a way of life. Many of your fellow Baltimoreans want an excuse to hurt you (especially if they have numbers on their side), so act accordingly.

Numbers and viciousness are the biggest factors in who wins.

It's been a long-standing trope in internet fight video communities that—not only do blacks have a relative penchant for group-based Zerg rush/swarming approaches—even in 1 on 1 fights between a black person and a white person, black bystanders will "helpfully" intervene and stop or restart the fight if the white person gets the upper-hand, if not seize the opportunity to gang-up on the white person to get some free shots in. Vice versa would generally be untrue for white bystanders when the black person gets the upper-hand.

White people imagining themselves as physically the same as black people is leading to ridiculous situations like this. Asians don’t have this problem they just avoid living around black people. Seems to fundamentally stem from the arrogance of the white mentality and a reticence to admit to weakness even in the face of mountains of evidence of weakness. Black people assaulting whites is hideous because of the power imbalance and white people lack the humility to admit this to themselves, or to people who are willing to exploit this arrogance to their advantage.

In the real world, except for a window in the teens(blacks hit puberty early), white men are usually a match for equivalent black men, physically.

Blacks are bigger, stronger, faster, and more aggressive than whites. In a one-on-one fistfight, they win.

Which is, of course, why you never let it get down to a one-on-one fistfight. Move to a gun-friendly state and carry daily. Organize crime watches. Avoid black neighborhoods.

Quite literally, black men are not bigger or stronger on average- except for a window in the teens where whites aren’t done growing yet.

Although I'm a strict theoretician in this realm, I cannot fully agree. Even in fistfight brains counts too. Of course if you got knocked out, this would be of little use, but speed of thinking, some planing and reflex are critical and strictly connected with higher intelligence. For an average Joe like me, this wouldn't turn the tide, but an experienced street fighter could stand a chance.

an experienced street fighter could stand a chance.

Almost definitionally, of course. Blacks aren't gorillas; their advantage is perhaps statistically significant but hardly insurmountable. We don't live in some parallel universe in which the bell curves of black and white fighting abilities don't or barely overlap; they're just slightly shifted relative to each other.

I've had this conversation before here, I do not agree with you, look at NFL stats, blacks have more fast twitch muscle, whites are less prone to acts of violence, violent crime and aggressive behavior. In the real world.

The average white man is slightly larger, significantly smarter, and in much better physical shape than the average black man. In a fight this adds up- yes blacks are more likely to start fights, but non underclass non teenaged whites probably have an advantage in a completely random equivalent pairing.

The average white man is less used to violence and probably less aggressive, too.

I wouldn't claim to know whether that evens the odds in the average or in the mean or otherwise.

Nice bait

I don’t know what this means, can you speak plainly?

Link

Bait is a an internet slang term used to describe comments or opinions which are considered to be made purposefully to troll other posters or to start a flame war.

Thank you for the explanation. My comment wasn't intended to troll anyone or start a flame war, I was describing my sincerely held beliefs. To the extent that they are annoying beliefs, they annoy me too. I'd prefer to believe something else. I imagine other people feel this way too. The downstream effects of other people preferring to believe something else are people getting their bikes kicked out from under them by slightly more aggressive and violent groups of people. The least I can do is point at what I see as the objective ugliness of the situation.

Sounds like you need someone to give you permission to believe in HBD. Permission granted. It‘s not that big of a deal. Just stop assuming any random black person is as smart and friendly as you.

On the plus side, now you can tell these stories you‘ve been ruminating on. They eat some well-meaning people up from the inside.

If your small-scale question is AITA? The answer is No. If it's "Is this a sign of the end times?" The answer is Yes.

Please don't make me choose between the blacks and the cyclists.

Whoever wins... we lose.

I just hope both sides have fun.

but because he was black (and I'm white) I was seething with racial animosity on the rest of my ride home. On one level I recognize that this is obviously irrational (and racist)

That's the most problematic part about a black man impulsively assaulting you with zero consequences: you becoming slightly more racist. Hopefully he enjoyed the assault more than you were upset by it, thus increasing the net happiness in the world.

Noticing which demographic is disproportionately responsible for acts of animosity and negative interactions—and updating your priors accordingly—is the opposite of irrational. Your feelings are valid.

I have had so many negative interactions with black people in this city (Baltimore) that I'm starting to wonder if there maybe is some truth in the HBD/race realist positions.

Just starting? Living in Baltimore is like nightmare difficulty setting for trying to remain an un-Noticer. In years past, an amusing example would be the topic of "squeegee boys" on /r/Baltimore. There occurred a sporadic but recurring three-way civil war between those who Noticed and found them all so tiresome, those who found them all so tiresome but refused to Notice, and those who insisted they were good boys just having some fun and helping their families make a living (you should be a Decent Human Being and tip extra to show gratitude for the mostly consensual squeegeeing experience).

Hopefully he enjoyed the assault more than you were upset by it, thus increasing the net happiness in the world.

Do you think the bike cuck got himself another bike and posts at the Motte?

Hopefully he enjoyed the assault more than you were upset by it, thus increasing the net happiness in the world.

Caught me off guard and made me chuckle. Impressive, very nice.

Someone that casually antisocial would have a pretty high chance of being beaten up by bystanders in India. The West has forgotten that some social norms benefit from the slight application of force as needed.

We'll solve P = NP before we figure out how to get whites to defend each other against racial violence happening right in front of their fucking faces.

Each other? Whites even struggle to defend themselves against violence when the perpetrator(s) is/are black. Perhaps understandably so, as no one wants to get the Bernhard Goetz/Daniel Penny treatment.

Oh please. Blacks won’t mess with identifiable rednecks. This has nothing to do with unequal legal treatment and everything to do with white liberals being pussies.

I have to say I agree with you here. So many people have been trained that any violence - even in self defense - is verboten. It's a core tenant of public schooling.

Even if they do shock themselves into realizing they're in danger they don't go far enough and lose anyway. I know it first-hand!

The race difference makes that impossible in America. On the flip side, if he'd tried that in some locations he might have gotten shot by the bike rider, well if it wasn't a cyclist.

You're allowed to be upset. I would as would most of us.

Do you think in the coming years the higher ratio of older people cashing out 401k's etc vs younger people contributing will put constant, unrelenting downward pressure on stock prices? Or is that a drop in the bucket compared to other factors in the market?

This has already happened in Japan- has their stock market been in perpetual decline?

The Bank of Japan has been buying Japanese stocks for many years. https://www.pionline.com/markets/bank-japan-becomes-nations-biggest-stock-owner

It has been pretty terrible since 1989. The Nikkei peaked in late 1989 and declined 80% from then until 2003. Only recently did it hit the 1989 ATH again.

Not sure about to what degree demographics was to blame.

It had been treading water for decades post 80's bubble, the Nikkei only recently achieved a new all time high since then (in nominal terms).

Why will there be a higher ratio than before?

Demographics: an aging population has a higher ratio of retirees.

Demographic shift of Boomers moving into retirement, lower birth rates

I thought so.

It's complicated. It's not like they'll all just sell all their stocks just because they've retired. Stocks can be inherited. A solid amount of the wealth will pass on to younger people. But the boomers may convert some of the equities into fixed incomes instead. And then there's Required Minimum Distribution (RMD). There will be obligatory withdrawals from tax-advantaged accounts.

So there will be headwind. How many percent worth of headwind, I have no idea. Can't see it being unrelenting downward pressure unless there's loads of bad shit and few good things going on at the same time.

Isn't it pretty common for retirement savings being tied up in stocks, and other wealth in real estate?

A lot of wealth will be passed on to younger generations but that isn't primarily stocks, for the broad middle class anyway.

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