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PaperclipPerfector  15d ago (text post)   3116 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for February 15, 2026

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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Yes, I know, people hate it when I respond to advice like this. But it's part of how I was raised — to automatically find flaws in and try my best to shoot down any proposed plan, because anything that can go wrong will go wrong, so you must spend every waking moment considering every possible point of failure and taking measures to address it, always have a Plan B for when Plan A fails, and a Plan C for when Plan B fails, and a Plan D…. My first instinct whenever anyone suggests anything is to poke holes in it, find every possible point of failure, and respond with every reason why it won't work.

Man, you can respond to things however you want. But I do think you should try some. If you're already so worried about doom, what could failing really cost you?

Who pays for that? And through what platform? Don't all the payment processors and crowdfunding/donation platforms/Patreon clones pretty much forbid NSFW? And I'd need to somehow obtain skill with AI art generation, enough to be competitive with all the other people out there with far more skill and experience. (Plus, I'm hardly the person to know what constitutes desirability or quality in pornographic output, given my own unfamiliarity with and lack of consumption of porn.)

Subscribestar and Patreon. Patreon's rules are actually pretty lax, basically no underage, no rape, and no real people. Not sure the other platforms even go that far. There are people clearing tens of thousands a month just reselling curated image sets. Probably won't be a thing for more than a year or two, but they're making money now. This is a 'skill' that didn't even exist two years ago, you're not competing with ML engineers, you're competing with random degenerates who asked someone on discord what model they used and how to set it up.

Can you be specific what you mean by "repackaging" here, and is that something people actually pay for? Plus, it's my youngest brother who's the artistic one in the family.

You say you sell images suitable to be book covers. You don't say those images are largely AI. A lot of books come out every year. The same people who were previously willing to pay 200 bucks for some stock images photoshoped on top of each other (Go browse some romantasy covers on Amazon) are now perfectly happy to pay for AI ones. Fiverr is the starting marketplace, but anyone who gets real business just makes their own portfolio site eventually.

I talked to the insurance company recruiters at the Job Fair a couple of times, discussing my math skills, and that stuff all gets done outside of Alaska. Plus, I lack actuarial training (and whatever degree/certification) and such.

Actuaries are a very small percentage of finance. Remote is also very available these days. That being said, a 4 year degree (Literally any major) is very important for these jobs, and if you don't have one, it's probably not a good path.

actually making book covers

(Doing art. Print shops are a dying breed, but people still commission covers)

Edit: I guess you might say my "dream job" is "prophet of doom," but nobody pays for that.

PEOPLE LITERALLY PAY FOR THIS. Seriously. People love the evening news, they love their various youtuber naysayers, and all those AI Doomer substacks. If you actually think you're good at it, go put your money where your mouth is and start seriously seeking a broader platform instead of contenting yourself to be a replyguy on niche reddit offshoots. It doesn't matter how good your content is, if it isn't top-level on a large site, it will never gather an audience.

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