I've been thinking lately about the best path to attaining wealth/ freedom, and how much I really need. Wondering if others here relate.

Personally, I don't need a ton. The few luxuries that I will spend on are high quality food, quality housing in nice locations, and services that save me time. Aside from that, I don't need fancy items or status symbols.

For income I think that a good-paying job would make more than enough for me to retire early and live a full life, as I'm quite frugal and invest aggressively.

However, I'm drawn to entrepreneurship primarily for the autonomy and freedom that it provides compared to working for someone else. I have never once felt fulfilled working a job long-term, but often feel fulfilled working on my own goals, even if they are harder, riskier, or more time consuming overall.

How about you?

Basically, I see life as a game where the goal is to level up my skills as high as possible. Think RuneScape or a similar RPG.

As I have gotten older and have more autonomy, I spend the majority of my time grinding away at building up my knowledge/ skills.

Money, power, fun, hedonism, etc don't motivate me past using them as a means to an end. Even things like social contact or relaxation I view through the lens of "doing this will help me recover so I can make more progress toward my goals".

Because of this, I've never cared for many things that others find important (like weddings, bars, clubs, social status, etc). My interest in things like food, entertainment, and even sex are secondary to making progress on whatever my focus is at the time.

Wondering if others feel the same. That is all.

Hey folks. I'm currently a software engineer and solopreneur with a CS and business background. I recently learned about the field of OR, which sounds fascinating. I was already planning on pursuing a doctorate, and an now considering to do that in OR.

My questions are:

1. In isolation, how practical is the OR skillset? How often do you use it to solve/ optimize real-world problems?

2. How useful is OR to someone with a CS/ business background? How much overlap? How valuable is the skillset to someone who already had the other two?

3. Do you have issues marketing/ selling OR as a title? The applications of the field sound fascinating, but many (like myself before doing the research) could easily mistake it for operations.

I see this fairly often.

Get pinged on LinkedIn about a "unique" or "exciting" opportunity. Onsite in Kentucky, in person 5 days/ week.

Ask what the salary is. It's "competitive" or "negotiateable".

Ask for the expected range. Top of range is half of what I'm currently making.

Me, confused on why they even bothered to reach out. I know the reason why they think I'd be a "great fit" for this "exciting opportunity" is because they did a keyword search for people who work at Google.

Does this ever actually work? You'd think someone who's job it is to source talent would be able to look up average salaries at a company before reaching out to potential applicants.

I'm a military vet and current FAANG software engineer who recently learned about SDVOSBs and want to take advantage. I have always wanted to be an entrepreneur, and this looks like a potentially strong way to start.

After doing some research, I found that there are some distinct benefits to SDVOSBs, like mandated quotas for defense primes subcontracting and federal agencies. Some states allow have mandatory quotas.

How viable is it to sell software to these agencies as a solopreneur/ small business owner. Ideally I'd like to take contracts and write/ sell the software myself, then eventually hire a few employees if things go well.

I'm also wondering if this would be worth doing given my current status as an employee in a highly-paid field. I would prefer to run my run my own business in the long run, and would be willing to take a pay cut in the short-term.

How much demand is there from the government for software via these contacts, and especially from SDVOSBs?

Thanks in advance for any advice/ information that you can offer!

I don't care if the hotel room has a beautiful ocean view. I'm paying for a bed to sleep in, not to look out the window. Give me the quietest room.

I don't care if the bar/ restaurant has a great vibe. I came here for quality food and drinks.

This is one of those things that I've never cared about. To the point that even if it's free, I don't really care.

I do care about this on my own home/ neighborhood, but when it comes to visiting other places, I will take an ugly dive with high quality over a pretty place that overcharges for mediocre product any day.

I recently lost a lot of weight and want to get re-evaluated. What are the best options for doing so? Thanks in advance for the info.

I drop all of my monthly luum commuter credits directly into lyft. Can Amazon see what I'm using these for? Pickup/ dropoff locations, etc.

I'm shocked nowadays at how many people seemingly don't know how to do anything. For some, that even includes the job they work at every day.

Almost every time I call a customer service line for something, I need to pre-solve the problem and then slowly guide them through it, handholding them the entire way.

Doctors don't solve health problems, they just throw pills at stuff.

So many people just follow a script, and are completely baffled for things that fall outside of it.

Etc.

I live in an above-average area. Not absurdly wealthy or perfectly safe by any means. There are some problems, but most people tend to be respectful and keep to themselves.

However, whenever I go to a public place like the airport, a theme park, taking a public train, flight, etc, I'm reminded that a seemingly large portion of the population are complete barbarians.

People talking on their phones or watching videos in confined spaces on speaker, people cutting lines, texting on phones while driving, throwing trash on the sidewalk, people with awful body odor, literal crazy people, and more.

I'm pretty vocal and will often (kindly) confront people about these things. They often act confused, as if they had no idea that they were doing anything wrong, or get angry and defensive. I almost never see another person confront these behaviors in public.

This makes me not want to go outside, or at best, stick to known locations where only well-behaved people are allowed to attend. Unfortunately, most of these places cost money.

How did we get here? Why do we now live in a world where it's considered okay to disregard everyone around you (and everyone else allows it)?

I like making high-protein, low calorie ice creams. I tried adding in a barebells protein bar to a mix today, and chopped it into smaller pieces before mixing it in.

The motor sounded like it struggled for a portion of the mix, and some of the car got stick to the blade. Can this damage the blade/ machine? Is rather not do it at all if that will be the case.

I bought the machine yesterday and made my first couple of batches from stuff that I had at home. Low-calorie yogurt, protein powder, and cottage cheese.

I tried 2 different flavors and combinations of ingredients. Fully expected these first batches to come out mediocre.

They're actually one of the best-tasting low-calorie ice creams that I've ever had. And by far the best macros. 50g protein/ 300cals for the chocolate batch. And none of the garbage chemicals in typical halo top-esque ice creams.

I don't get how this is possible, but I'll take it.

I value simplicity. Will using just this break my machine? If not, I also have full fat cottage cheese and casein chocolate protein powder that I can add to the mix.

I finished the series recently, and overall would rate it as one of the greatest of all time. Here are my individual thoughts and ratings, separated by season.

Season 1 - Medium-High

It does its job, which is to provide a compelling hook, introduce main characters, and provide some mystery.

The intro is one of the best I have seen in any anime (up there with FMA's failed transmutation). It sets a strong theme of desperation where humans continually lose against the titans, with multiple unceremonious killing off of what seem like key characters. Levi's entire squad dying in minutes in a key example.

The additional of multiple special titans and the mystery around the key seemed kitchy at the time I had a feeling they would mess it up. Luckily, they didn't.

Season 2 - Low

Most of this season was forgettable for me. So much so that I needed to go back and jog my memory on it before writing this.

The introduction of more humans that could transform into titans seemed strange, and the various subplots didn't seem to amount to much. Overall, not very interesting and forgettable.

Season 3 - High

Great overall. It had political infighting, including a coup, multiple strategic battle, and a deepening explanation of the underlying story.

We get to see humanity get their first real win, at the cost of a massive sacrifice from the scouts. It feels like the humans in the walls are finally going to overcome the dangers of the outside world and finally achieve the freedom that they desire.

And just as the reward of freedom and the outside world is introduced, the reality of that world is revealed to crush that dream. Paradis island is feudal Japan in a world with WW1 technology. The world they discovered hates and wants to destroy them, and is becoming increasingly capable of doing so.

Season 4 Part 1 - Highest

By far the best of any of the seasons. The intro perfectly captures the disorienting feeling of being thrust from a world with medieval technology into the 20th century. The first episode captures the brutality of modern war in a way that makes what we've seen in Paradis feel tame by comparison.

The GoT-style political maneuvering is excellent. Fleshing out the history of the titans, the past, etc is very well done, and cleanly closes out many open threads form earlier on in the show.

The framing of Marley as a superpower enemy, and the subsequent attack on them from a teched-up Paradis was actually done quite well, and is fairly believable. My main complaint being that the blimp escape plan was pretty fragile, and likely would've been shot down in real life.

Season 4 Parts 2 and 3 - Medium-Low

Right after I watched them, I would've rated these as just Low. With some time to think about them and the deeper meaning of the show, I'd settle on slightly higher.

There are a lot of things I didn't like about the final episodes. Eren's shift to an emo Kim Jong Un just seemed dumb. Even with the explanations at the end, It's hard to believe that 80% of humanity had to die to get the ending they desired.

The seeing through time stuff was... Bleh. It didn't really add anything of substance to the story, and seemed very hand-wavy. Not a fan of it.

The worst part of these episodes was the powerscaling/ plot armor. The Good Guys™ of the current moment always got a significant advantage over their adversaries. See: Levi surviving a point-blank explosion and Hange singlehandedly taking down multiple collosal titans. And somehow the main group was able to fight against copies of EVERY PAST TITAN SHIFTER COMBINED? It was just dumb and made no sense.

Also, the ending just didn't sit great with me. Yeah, I get it. Mikasa killing Eren was what Ymir needed to let go of King Fritz, blah blah blah. It seems dumb that 80% of humanity needed to die for this, and even dumber because Paradis is eventually destroyed in the ending, anyway. I would've much rather seen the conflict between Paradis and Marley/ the world play out normally without all of the unnecessary timey-wimey magic stuff.

That said, I get the overarching message that war is inevitable, humans will always fight, etc. I think that this message could've been delivered in a more believable way.

I'm currently have a Salvador with a right hand grog nozzle, left hand Jakobs shotgun that burns all of its ammo in 1 shot. Rough rider shield, class mod that gives +4 inconceivable for a total of 90% chance to not spend ammo.

Money shot only gives +400% with this mod, but my jakobs is like a machine gun that only has a 10% chance of needing to reload.

I also have an unkempt harold, but this build seems way stronger, and I haven't seen it mentioned. Any reason that might be?

I'm currently in S4P1. I've seen a lot of flack and dislike about the tonal shift between the end of S3 and the start of S4. Personally, I think it's brilliant and elevates this show to the level of a masterpiece.

S4 introduces a massive external world in a way that makes the story feel real. It uses the Titans in 20th-century warfare in a way that actually makes sense. It creates an existential problem for the people of Paradis to respond to (do we fight and confirm to the world that we are monsters, or lie down and accept subjugation?).

It also introduces many parallels to real world events. Marley is an Allegory for a superpowered Nazi Germany. The Eldians are scapegoats similar to the Jews. Paradis is a combination of pre-WW2 Japan (isolationist, must tech up quickly and pre-emptively attack enemies to avoid destruction), and North Korea (isolated, but possesses world-ending weapons to discourage attack). There is even a China-Taiwan allegory between Marley and Paradis with respect to its resources and the ruling powers' retreat after its defeat.

All in all, it is beautifully done. I don't understand the criticism, as the transition was airtight and believable. I love the now higher stakes of a modern world at war, as opposed to the prior state of medieval-tech humans fighting mindless giants. Looking forward to see how the rest of it plays out.

I've cut a significant amount of fat since starting this journey. At my highest, I was 245lbs, currently 170 (male). I've went from obesity to being objectively the best that I've ever looked.

Surprisingly, few people have had anything positive to say about it. Most of the comments from my family have been negative or passive-aggressive. Some of the following:

• "You've lost a lot of weight" *pause* "Why?"
• "You look too thin." (while I'm at a very healthy 13% bodyfat).
• "Losing weight is great, but you should really put on some muscle" (as if I'm not already planning to do that).
• <insert story about why they can't lose weight into a totally unrelated conversation> "my work offers free snacks", "I tried keto but it didn't work for me", etc.

Only a few people have had genuinely positive things to say. Surprise surprise, they were people who are fit themselves. Both are lean and athletic. Neither of them tried to slow me down or downplay my progress. In fact, both were eager to offer advice on how to keep moving toward my goal of building an even better physique.

This is a reminder that hate, jealousy, comparison, etc only comes from below. Hearing these things are a sign that you're on the right path.

I've cut a significant amount of fat since starting this journey. At my highest, I was 245lbs, currently 170 (male). I've went from obesity to being objectively the best that I've ever looked.

Surprisingly, few people have had anything positive to say about it. Most of the comments from my family have been negative or passive-aggressive. Some of the following:

• "You've lost a lot of weight" *pause* "Why?"
• "You look too thin." (while I'm at a very healthy 13% bodyfat).
• "Losing weight is great, but you should really put on some muscle" (as if I'm not already planning to do that).
• <insert story about why they can't lose weight into a totally unrelated conversation> "my work offers free snacks", "I tried keto but it didn't work for me", etc.

Only a few people have had genuinely positive things to say. Surprise surprise, they were people who are fit themselves. Both are lean and athletic. Neither of them tried to slow me down or downplay my progress. In fact, both were eager to offer advice on how to keep moving toward my goal of building an even better physique.

This is a reminder that hate, jealousy, comparison, etc only comes from below. Hearing these things are a sign that you're on the right path.

So far in my life, I've worked for a variety of organizations. I've worked retail, been in the military, and large corporations. I've worked jobs that would hire anyone with a pulse, all the way up to very elite/ competitive teams that many people would compete for and be proud to be a part of. And I eventually felt the same about every single one of them.

All of them, after a certain point, felt like a slow death. Some took longer to feel this way, but eventually they all did. At most, it took a year or two for me to feel this way and begin looking around for the next move. I could not imagine myself every staying at the same place for 10+ years as is common with many people, especially the older generations.

Despire working such a wide variety of jobs, I have never worked a single one that didn't eventually feel this way. I wonder if this says something about me (that I'm incompatible with jobs, that I get bored easily, etc), and if this is a problem to be fixed or a benefit that I can someone harness.

I can also say that for some of these jobs/ teams, I've been very passionate and interested in some of them at the beginning. At my current job, I did a higher total quantity of work in the first few months than all of the years following combined. In the past 6 months, I've done practically nothing. I had a real, deep interest in the work that eventually got whittled down and now I have absolutely no interest in it at all.

I'm seriously considering entrepreneurship, as I beleive this may be a personal freedom issue. I like the strategy/ planning side of things the most, and despise lack of control/ freedom. But I fear that the pattern of extreme interest followed by disinterest could occur, which could be disastrous for a company that I personally own. It's much easier to walk away and bounce between jobs.

Has anyone else experienced the same, and how did you manage/ handle it? Do you consider it an advantage or disadvantage? Curious to hear your experiences/ thoughts.