mrev19's comments

This is a really good book which documents the development process of Encarta. Its a fantastic story. I found it so engrossing it inspired me to become a developer. Its also a fascinating snapshot of a very interesting time in Seattle's history, at the intersection of grunge and the nascent tech boom.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0788157930/ref=dbs_a_def_r...

This is freakin awesome. SunVox for life

Besides incorrectly quoting the example at the cited link and being a deceptive/incomplete comparison, what does this even have to do with the op?

True. See the 'MWGTOW' (Men Who Go Their Own Way) movement, as well as 'the red pill' community. Also search 'sexodus'.

Unfortunately, if you get there, there's not enough therapy in the world that will help. You can never pay someone to teach you to love yourself, or to decide for you who exactly you are, or decide for you what you want. You have to claim it for yourself, and if you walk the path laid out for you by others you will not have the tools to do this. After pair bonding with the mother, the foundation is laid as a toddler, parents praising effort, not outcome, and teaching kids to learn and explore and create for the sake of their own curiosity, not tying that process to external judgements and motivators and robbing them of their agency. The goal of parenting should be to teach self reliance. Parents and our current scholastic environment are raising children that are so tightly coupled to the system that they are extremely brittle in the face of adversity, they fall apart. Their reference points are external. They have no compass. You might 'make it' by society's standards with no internal compass, but this 'making it' is incredibly deceptive. You've acquired a debt working against self realization and direction that is incredibly difficult, sometimes impossible, to pay. Countless broken homes and shattered lives result from the inevitable reckoning. Everyone will become accountable to the amount of responsibility they've taken for their life at some point, and it can be equally liberating and devastating.

A person who follows a path laid out for them by others from the age of four without veering will encounter challenges later in life involving self-direction and identity. 'Set for life' is a dangerous delusion.

Thats the honest truth. Its hard when success at conservation and sustainability is directly at odds with nearly every other metric of success we as a species hold dear. Not to say we shouldn't try to make changes, and there's always hope. But its a bit like trying to stop a speeding train while being inside the train and leaning really hard against the wall.

Wow I haven't seen that character record sheet in 30 years. So mewhere I have a 10th level elf fighter with 18's for every trait (17 for charisma just to break it up.)

Translation for non-D&Ders - I was so nerdy I made my own characters for my own games I was DM for with completely invented characteristics rather than rolling dice for traits like the rules say

To me your talk was very authentic. I felt like I was having a beer with you and you were just laying out in an hour how you see things. It was super impactful and totally changed the way I think about a number of things. A big part of that was from realizing how deeply you've internalized and proven these concepts and strategies, and that came across through the delivery. It felt like an interaction, and an interaction can't be reduced to quotes or soundbytes.

The second row of cannons was added at the insistence of the king, the shipbuilder knew it would doom the ship. Also, I've yet to meet anyone who thought the Vasa sank because "Swedes were stupid."

Aside from sarcasm, which invites opposition, I think you've touched on a taboo subject. I think what you say is true. At the same time I'd wager that a disproportionate number of founders have bipolar 2 tendencies, which will provide fuel and context to depressive episodes. If both are true, it becomes very tricky to determine cause. It becomes easier to focus on those potential causes which are outside our control, that depression is something that happens "to" us. Of course this is often the case where there is a medical issue, but as you point out, it is also often a result of circumstances and our reaction to them. Or even more confusingly of course, both.

Getting back to the original comment and how it was received, at the beginning of your comment you make a claim that is going to be controversial. From that point on, any introduction of sarcasm will push anyone not allied with your view towards open hostility.

Downvotes are probably there due to sarcasm and because you assert that it is all learning and discount mental illness in 2nd to last paragraph.

But I agree with your argument.

In my opinion the current strong social pressure to be a "founder" has led many people to attempt it who are unfit to handle the challenges it brings.

Its the way of nature. Attempting to lead and failing is painful and possibly fatal. If you're a lion you don't start a convention celebrating your and other beta lion's failure to unseat the alpha. You either get busy plotting your attempt, or ctfo.

What is anyone railing against anyway? Founders risk depression. Alpha chimps test extremely high for stress. If you play the game for the biggest rewards it will be brutal, full stop. If your potential upside is 50 zillion dollars, you have just run out of sympathy points with everyone but your own kind.

Try dedicating your life to music its freakin brutal. Write some songs and go sing em in a public forum, thats some serious vulnerability. Not saying its tougher than being a founder, but no way the opposite is true. Anyway my point is that these days many people who are attracted to being founders tend to be shocked by the costs because they don't have the natural temperament to sharply veer from the path of established norms. Many don't believe in something greater than themselves or money which would allow them to suffer the pain as a cost of doing business. This is a given in the arts. Its like the marines, pain is part of the practice.

how language evolves

OH HELL YES!!!!

Holy crap the internet is AMAZING!!!!!!

I seriously asked everyone i came within two feet of about that game for freakin years, and NO ONE ever know what I was going on about was like I'd seen a unicorn. Realise now must have been 84-85

I filed that away as some sort of weird delusion I was doomed to forever live the memory of alone until this very moment good god a 30 year reconciliation this is last starfighter-level mind blowing shit over here

I love this story I would have been so pumped to have seen that. You were a lord.

I had that experience you describe of only seeing certain games randomly, round about 89-90ish I think. 'Sin Star'. I only saw it one arcade on a trip, once, where I played it for 8 hours, it just blew me away. I spent years after that asking around, could never find it again, or anyone who had ever played it.

Another thing that I carry with me from that time is just how mind melting Defender was when it showed up. That game will always be the high water mark for me. I remember just staring at the controls for so long with my friends, just terrified. I remember the day first hearing that someone we knew had actually played it. We didn't believe it, we didn't think it was actually possible. But then of course it became THE game.

Hitting the arcade with $10 in quarters was just like, I can die now thank you very much

Periodic aimless walking is a huge productivity boost for any dev. It allows you to take stock, prioritize, and adjust your strategies, not mention solve problems. If you're not doing it, try it, $5 says it saves you tons of time.

No.

Reminds me of the Twilight Zone movie back in the 80's, the kid who can wish anything he wants and it comes true, and he wishes all these strangers to be his "family" and traps them in the house with them.

I'd love to hear about one of these emails reading "Hi employee, person who is totally dependent on my whim and fancy for sustinence and shelter, I've been thinking a lot about what me and my 2 friends stand for, and even though I'm not totally sure, and can't necessarily articulate it, its extremely important to me, and from now on its pretty damn important that you start standing for it too. You are an extension of me. That's why your office looks like my old apartment. Your identity has been subsumed, and to prove it I'd like to point out that your livelihood is now in a great part dependent on your allegiance to my completely undefined and arbitrary value system. So we're in this together. I am writing you to tell you everything will be fine, as long you don't. fuck. this. up. Thanks! I'll be back in touch with more specifics, or not, in the meantime just act natural."

unless you get saved by eagles