Can I get a tl;dr? Revenue is meaningless without subtracting costs.

I’d be down for copyright extending 10-years past the creator’s death, 20 at most. This is plenty of time to resolve complex legal affairs, fighting relatives, etc.

Wore hard contacts back when those were a thing. Trained myself to look straight down when I drop something. No pause, don’t look for the thing, look straight down immediately, catch it on the bounce.

Caveat: This does not work when a spring pops on your project. Place a flashlight flat on the floor and scan. My gunsmith has a sweet trick for springs. Take it apart inside a bag.

Dog is a fine meal!

Busted out a Logitech solar kb, dead as a rock after a year in a box. Used my highest power flashlight to jump start it. Come at me!

I’ve given up. Wake up to rain, maybe stay home Saturday afternoon? Afternoon storms forecasted, skip the camp visit? Nah. I’m going anyway, been burned too many times. Worst I can do is strap on the rain gear and walk around, or futz in the tent or shed until the inevitable solar breakthrough.

Hiring for expertise and personailty is a tough set of skills to pair. Reminds me of software I had to work with where you had to have accounting and database skills. Nothing mutually exclusive there, but it’s tough to find people with both.

Best you can do is layer it. HR does a quick call to see that you’re not an antisocial asshole, maybe something a tad more in depth later, passes to the team’s management to go forward.

My last employer did quite well. I sat a 2-hour interview with the whole team. Yes, we got breaks, and as much as anything, that sold me on the job. “The job is very human.” And it was! Great company.

My man, we are in much the same boat. I’ve turned procrastination into an art form. Sleep till noon, fuck around for a few hours before my wife gets home, drink beer all night, “I can handle it all tomorrow!” Boy oh boy do I have plans for tomorrow! Rinse and repeat for going on 2-months, and the severance pay is near an end.

And yeah, it’s like being thrust into a whole new family, because your former family is dead. You’re an orphan, thrust into this new group of relatives you’ve never even heard of. They’re all very nice and smiley, but it’s still scary as hell.

“This is your aunt Sally, she’ll help get you settled. And this is your new daddy, Tom. He’s fair, but a little gruff, really a teddy bear! Just don’t tell him I said that! Ha ha! If you need clean sheets, talk to Hilda over in Housekeeping, she’s so nice! But keep your receipts or she’ll murder you in your sleep. Ha ha!” Been doing this over 3 decades, I 'm socially adept and it’s still intimidating.

My wife is going through it now. Started the highest paying job she’s ever had this past Monday. But hey, at least we’re not foreigners, truly strangers in a strange land like her. Imagine moving exactly halfway around the globe and trying to fit in! That woman is as brave as anyone I’ve ever met.

OTOH, I have zero fear of interviews. Hell, I’d do 4 a day and would welcome the opportunity. It’s the legwork, and paperwork, that I find daunting. At my last job, they interviewed 100 people before landing on me and another guy. Jesus, I had no idea. It was only 1 of 8 resumes I fired into the void. Dumb luck or did I make my own?

Hope an earlier comment of mine helps:

https://old.lemmy.world/comment/12027462

And I thrive at those positions. Hell, give me an angry customer and I’ll solve their problem, at least move it along for them, legitimately help, and have them apologizing for being an ass.

You sit in the back and crank it out, I’ll cover for you on the front lines!

because what they can offer isn’t valued by capital

People categorize people as ‘useful’ and ‘useless’. Hell, get down to Biology 101 and mate selection, animals select useful against useless. What do you have to offer?

“I’m having a heart attack! Help!”

“I’m a really nice guy that does wonderful paintings of the local pelicans!”

“Fuck off, I need a skilled physician and I’ll pay anything right now!”

Yes, people get paid more or less dependent upon their use to society. Why would society support you if you have little, or nothing, to contribute? For those of us in first world countries, we’re populous enough and technologically advanced enough to support a wide range of talents. Of course there are plenty of counter examples, but that’s mainly how it goes in any given economic or governmental framework.

tl;dr: We’re social animals with needs. Fulfill needs or GTFO. You don’t have to like it, but you better understand it.

I’m guessing you weren’t around for the Soviet Union, where every country behind the Iron Curtain was a poverty stricken hellscape (and still hasn’t fully recovered). I’ll take the end-stage capitalism we’re currently enduring over that shit any day of the week.

Lemmy is eat up with kids who downplay soft skills, sometimes acting like those skills are not only unnecessary, but undesirable. Happy to see so many in this conversation talking about their importance!

And us IT nerds are the worst, or were historically. Used to be, you could be antisocial and literally stinky, but hey, we had the arcane knowledge employers had to have. They were forced deal with us weirdo wizards, what with our long hair, holey jeans and beat up Chuck Taylors. Not so any longer. (I’d argue we’ve made huge strides towards a middle ground!)

Reminds me of the return-to-office hate around here. A mandatory, 5-day RTO is a revolting policy that only loses the best employees, plain dumb. But around here we act like there is no benefit to in-person collaboration. It’s obvious to me and I have a dozen examples at hand. Plus, you gonna tell me a group of social animals gains nothing from being social?! Jesus that’s naive.

I’ve done that a dozen times. Worst case, you stack your resume. What’s wrong with that?

The interviewer(s) has no power over your life, not presenting your case to a judge here. You didn’t have the job when you woke up this morning, you may or may not have it when you go to bed. You can’t lose anything, only gain.

Some advice that has stuck with me came from Andrew Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People. Yeah, modern sensibilities take that old-school title all wrong. It’s a book about the author’s quest to better understand social interactions and document his findings for future people feeling as lost as he did, thereby making himself a better person. It’s the only book I’d recommend to anyone. Give it a spin.

When faced with potentially world shattering change, and an interview is not that, I force myself to take a breath and ask, “What happens if the very worst consequence I can imagine comes true?” Go nuts here, get dark, what’s the worst you can imagine?

The answer is invariably, “I’ll soldier on, somehow survive.” Not like I’m going to blow my brains out, whatever happens. And you won’t either.

“Will I get this job?” is nothing compared to the many difficulties life throws up. I’m on the hunt now, after leaving an employer that treats their employees like gold. In fact, I’m on severance pay ATM, but running out fast. What if I have to go back to an office everyday? What if I only end up getting paid half what I was making? Fuck, what if I end up selling boiled peanuts on a corner downtown to make our mortgage? Well, I won’t die, that’s for sure.

The second thing I’d say, talk to the interviewer just as you would a friend of a friend, an acquaintance that maybe has an opportunity for you. They’re not kings, and you’re not their subject. Approaching them as an equal makes one hell of a difference, exudes sincerity, and that lets them see you as your really are. And isn’t that what you both want?

Are you thinking the clit has a white ring around it?! Get your face in there soldier and get to work!

We teenage boys debated the mythical clitoris and it’s location, and we all had differing opinions. (This was long before the internet, OK?)

I actually found the G-spot before the clitoris. Didn’t know it was a thing back then, but damn, it’s an obvious hot spot.

Know what it’s actually about?

Been catching a LOT of those watching shorts, been digging it.

Ours merely hums, wouldn’t think the noise would make it through a window unless you were within 10’, and even then, that might not wake a sleeping neighbor.

The electric weed eater OTOH. Yeah. No.

(DeWalt BTW. 40V I think? 2 small batteries.)