“also known as spooky kids…” I already like this page.

I’m sure it was better than Darwin

What about my understanding of evolution is incorrect, and how do you see natural selection working in present humans? Very possible that Dunning-Kruger is at play, but we may have to agree to disagree as to where…

My point is not that previous people haven’t done significant things, it’s that they did those things independently of who one of their many ancestors happened to be. Much like an actual ripple, the larger the pond, the less likely any disturbance is to reach the shore, and the more likely it is to be quickly lost to the natural turbulence of any body of water.

If your evidence against that is the existence of significant inventions, there are very few, if any, that wouldn’t have been invented by someone else within years. No major invention or discovery, from the light bulb to relativity, has been made while others weren’t working on the same problem and making similar, if slightly slower, progress.

That’s why they say necessity is the mother of invention, not a person or an institution or anything that could be credited to a single creator.

And if you think humans are still evolving according to selection pressure the way that other species have/do, you just don’t understand how evolution actually works. The moment we gained self awareness and created social structures, we drifted so far from biological evolution that it’s an entirely moot point in terms of future generations. The least adaptive of us now, on average, still lives through the entirety of our birthing/fertile years, while significant portions of a population dying during or prior to fertility is the only way that natural selection works. That or the existence of bachelor herds that lead to a very slim minority being the only ones to breed. Neither of those are the case with humans.

Ultimately, having kids to ensure your own legacy is possibly the most selfish reason you could create someone and thrust them into 80 years of what should be their own life.

I think that’s pure conjecture about how having kids affects the world. And the nature, worthiness, or value of those 12 people has nothing to do with whether or not you happen to personally be their ancestor. There’s nothing different or more special about one person’s progeny than another, so who cares if it’s your kids or 8 billion other people. The idea that that is important in the future is all about making yourself important in the present.

Why does it matter if they’re your descendants or others’? My 16 great great grandparents are as much strangers to me as any other 16 people walking around 100 years ago. And everyone here now is in the same place, whoever they came from. Not like I’ll be alive to (or would do so in any case) take pride in saying 'ooh those 12 people have something to do with me if you go back far enough"

Why is it essential for our genes to live on?

deleted by creator

Weird, I didn’t see that. fingers crossed it’s a bluff lol

Say you’re from California on the form and it’ll change what you have to enter. You don’t have to put in an address or verify CA residency.

Including the opt out link in the announcement article is a good guy move on the writer’s part. Thanks, Kate. You’re a pal.

You’d find very few financial advisors or experts who would recommend putting your retirement portfolio entirely in gold.

No, the article is actually saying that people have not done this enough. Workers were better off when their employees did so for them and mandatorily (a pension system), and allowing folks to self manage how much they put away is what has led to 49% of folks within 10 years of retirement having nothing to retire on.

There are very safe ways to invest. Doing it poorly and a lot is a gamble; taking a little time to understand different investment vehicles and portfolios and the risks associated with each allows you to earn interest at literally any level of risk. An example, money market funds earned 5%-8% on 2023, and it is literally impossible for MMFs to go negative. Certified deposits offered up to 5.5% guaranteed returns. The benefit of pensions is that employees don’t need to learn all that and make those choices in order to benefit from them.

I mean maybe, but 401ks almost always require you to set a target fund or indicate a preferred risk level just to set an account up. So unless the commenter went out of their way to not allow their 401k to be invested, it would almost certainly be invested in, at least/lowest risk, an interest bearing cash equivalent, like a MMF as you mentioned. And MMFs were crazy last year, some earning like 7% with essentially no risk and great liquidity.

Yeah the comment treats 401ks like they are checking accounts rather than investment accounts. Outside of a major recession, a 401k should outperform inflation. And if it grows at 5% (conservatively) during a 30-year career and then you happen to have to retire during a 2008-scale recession, you’ll still have way more than your principal investment in there.

Except that 401ks are invested. By default they tend to be invested in a relatively stable, diverse portfolio along the standard long-term investment guidelines of ~60/40 balance of stocks and fixed or cash holdings. Mine made 15% last year invested even more conservatively than that, and it’s a no-name 401k provides by my small employer. I would have made significantly less with gold.

If you think people’s 401ks are just sitting there in a low-interest checking account, I don’t think you understand how they’re actually structured.

So the solution to 401k inequity is employer-sponsored gold reserves? I think just returning to a pension system probably works…

(Nor are any of the issues with 401ks mentioned in the article related to inflation)

Tom Morello came on stage to play this on guitar with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band in Chicago like 15 years ago, and it was one of the most amazing song performances I’ve seen live. Eddie Vedder sang with them too, quite a lineup.

Since remote jobs are in high demand, it’s gonna be a game of numbers in part/unfortunately. Stay on job search websites (indeed etc.) and apply to every single job you can (that suits you). Work job applications like they are your job right now, real focused work for a good few hours a day, just blasting out cover letters and applications.

Write a brief cover letter following online guidelines for each application (whenever you can), especially for any jobs you’d prefer over others. It may say that’s optional, but still go for it since you gotta separate yourself from other applicants. Your writing skills even just in this post and the comments bode well! A lot of people take it for granted that everyone writes coherently, but I work as an editor myself, and I can tell you you’ve got a leg up on a lot of folks who just can’t put together a good sentence haha. Keep it simple, honest, personal but professional and direct.

An alternative would also be a job training and placement program. If you select a good one (like Generation in the US and some other countries, though I don’t think they work in Canada), the same program that can train you on current skills (sales, tech, customer service, etc. – typically focused on constantly needed jobs that can be learned in just a few months) will also help you find a job as you finish the course. Only go to a free/nonprofit/govt center/website, and only choose a program that has direct connections with employers or a 70+% placement rate for graduates in jobs.

Hope these help, and keep at it! There are a lot of people in similar situations, and a lot with even bigger gaps and fewer skills. If any of them can find work and improvement (and they can!), then you’ll be able to, too. It’ll be hard, I’m sure, but you are someone who can do it, especially given how far you’ve already gotten yourself. Good luck!

Ah yeah, that’s my one issue with it as well, but I’ve started putting all tools I need for a project away from the board in a big crate/box/wagon, and then wherever I’m working, I put them back in the box as I finish. I find that I move them back to the garage more consistently when they are all in a single thing, and then eventually get them back on the board