AnarchistArtificer

I understand why you feel that way, and I'm certainly not trying to persuade you that you should feel optimistic about the world. It sounds like giving up hoping might be a thing that helps you to cope with the awfulness of the world — it's reasonable to want to shield oneself from inevitable disappointment.

I think that at the core of my own resolve to keep resisting terrible things is my sadness at how it's not helpful to try to persuade people like you that things are worth fighting for. I think that, at my core, I agree with you. We're both so jaded by what we've seen that it's hard to imagine anything better. To some extent though, I don't need to — my own coping mechanism is to hold onto the abstract hope of future people being able to effect change (and to think in terms of how I can best set the groundwork for them). Effectively, I am setting aside the question of whether people are worth the effect now, and imagining a future where people are worth the effort.

I recognise that it's irrational, but it helps me to get by — in terms of my own life, I've found it's a mindset that helps me to grow in a way that I like, so it's a useful guiding principle if nothing else. I emphasise again though, I'm not trying to persuade you of anything. There is so much awfulness in the world that I'm just glad that you've been able to continue existing, even if you feel hopeless about things.

This is an area where failure is not a binary. As bad as things are now, it can always get worse. The more people give up, the worse things will become.

That makes sense. Although for what it's worth, I don't recall having any problems with Deep Rock Galactic, so whatever issues you had with that may be specific to your particular set up

So pretty. I'm glad you asked this question, because I got to see this image

Out of curiosity, what games? I'm not going to throw unsolicited advice at you — I'm just wondering because all of my games have been astoundingly easy to get working on Linux.

There's already decent scholarship in this area. One such book is the recent "The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech’s Hype and Create the Future We Want", by Emily Bender and Alex Hanna. I haven't read it yet, but I've heard good things about it and it's high on my reading list.

Thanks for sharing this. I've still got quite a few chapters to go, but I wanted to comment this thought before I forget it: it's so incredibly striking how powerful the small acts of kindness are. I've cried more at the little gestures of kindness than at all the cruelty.

You should almost certainly go to a tailor. It makes a world of difference if "professional" is your goal. It can be tricky to find a good one, but when you do, it's incredible. It can be surprisingly cheap too (although building a wardrobe that has high quality piece that are worth tailoring can be quite expensive. This is best done gradually)

I think that this is especially true if you're on the larger side, because a greater amount of body mass means that qualitative differences in where we store that mass will be more apparent.

Something I liked about going to a tailor is I could show them clothes that I liked versus ones I didn't (or explain what had been bothering me about certain clothes). They were able to suggest alternatives.

Good recommendation. I tend to be most comfortable rolling up sleeves to my forearm, but I wonder whether this might also help.

Do you have a favourite pair of cufflinks?

Despite not owning one, I really like the Steam Deck because I suspect it has made my transition to Linux far smoother (for a while, I dual booted because I was fearful that gaming on Linux would be difficult.)

Thanks for sharing this. I'd heard of this before, but being reminded of it bolstered my spirits a little.

Damn, that's pretty dangerous, right?