I think something has gotten messed up in our culture that makes people obsess in an unhealthy way about identity. It’s a natural concern for people in their twenties, but it gets exaggerated. Your identity is just who you really are and it is a life’s work to get to know that and to develop it, and the possibilities are much broader than you can know, especially when you are awash in a culture that is selling you identities. Don’t put yourself in a box or fit yourself into some mold by deciding on some ‘identity’. Give yourself room and let it naturally develop.

I was thinking about recommending TCL as a joke. My favorite thing about it is it’s “whimsicly typed.”

Outrage bait?

That would work great on cars too, all we need is all the roads to be as smooth and even as steel rails.

Yeah what makes spitting in your child’s face not ok, is kind of orthogonal to strictness.

Everyone should get decide what battles they want to fight. Putting your own battles onto a child is not ok.

Accepting a social norm is a healthy approach for things you don’t give a crap about, like say, your hair style or length, and not turning it into a unnecessarily big thing.

I didn’t mean that you can’t tell the difference between any two things if they aren’t side by side. Yes I do recognize, when I play music through my laptop speakers, the sound is not nearly as nice as through my nice floor speakers. But when I use $30 earbuds, I’m not particularly aware of what I’m missing by not using my $100 pair. If I compared them side by side, yes. It’s the same for a lot of things, like wine or whiskey.

Here’s a factor that seems to be underappreciated. Those differences are a lot less important when you aren’t comparing side by side. Just because you can hear or taste the difference between a thing and a more expensive version doesn’t mean you will really appreciate that difference later. Diminishing returns does play into this, and the small differences between two things at a high level is often too small for your memory to even capture.

And even when it comes to the bigger differences, how it affects enjoyment has a large psychological component, in how much satisfaction do you get just knowing you are using something excellent, and does it bother you knowing what you are experiencing could be better.

I have nice quality speakers and headphones, but sometimes I’m lazy and will listen to a piece of music through my crappy laptop or phone speakers. I still enjoy that music. And if that was all I had access to, I’d still enjoy the hell out of music. I’m not about to give away or stop using my nice speakers, but I’m not convinced they make me happier in any significant way.

I put a slice of cucumber over its eye when I go sleep.

There’s all sorts of inappropriate ways to use a toaster where the failure mode is fire. Making toast in bed, under the covers? Catch fire. In a puddle of gasoline? Catch fire. Seriously, WTC toasters?

Finally, a razor that’s specialized for shaving assholes!

Reminds me of the reddit mascot…

Happy Birthday owes it’s place to function. I don’t think anybody actually enjoys it as music.

This generational. I’ve seen a number of names I thought of as grandma names come back into fashion. People who are young enough not to have experienced grandmas with those names pick them. Gertrude is a grandma name to me, BTW, not a great-grandma name. I actually had a grandma named Gertrude. Welcome to old. (Edit: my brain glitched from Mildred to Gertrude there. Looking forward to Alzheimers.)

AWD with a mini engine on each wheel.

why don’t all our cars look like catfish?

that’s really fucked up. don’t get me wrong, i’m not judging you, our culture has probably fucked me up the same way as you, i just dont happen to have kids. but not preparing kids for the real actual world is fucked up, and there is a serious disconnect with reality being instilled by our culture in them, and also in you to make that happen. my point is that it is a serious dysfunction in modem culture required to make happen.

everything my parents ever did.

that’s kind of awesome. the inverse of your story is what ive seen more often, the promotion that is more work for no more pay. both reflect the same corporate dysfunction.

laptop is just a more expensive desktop but it lets you do what you’d do on a desktop from the couch, bed, deck, coffee shop. it all depends on your habits.