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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: July 7th, 2023

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  • Yes.

    I was never a “kid person” growing up. I didn’t relate to children and didn’t have much experience with them, but I always saw having a family as the natural path in life. Just like dating leads to marriage, I saw kids as the next chapter after marriage. When I really think about why I wanted kids, it comes down to two main reasons.

    First, the experience itself seemed undeniably compelling. I’m introverted and not naturally a risk-taker, but I’ve learned over time that it’s important to challenge yourself and embrace growth. The last thing I want is a life that feels stagnant or boring. Skipping out on something as profound as raising kids felt like missing out on a major part of life.

    Second, my wife is incredible. The idea of taking on the adventure of parenting with her felt both exciting and deeply meaningful. It’s intimate, difficult, fun, scary, and rewarding — and I couldn’t imagine a better partner to share that with.

    Now, fast-forward to the present: we have three teenagers, and we’ve genuinely loved raising them. I’m not looking forward to the quiet days after they head off to college — the energy and fullness of having kids around has been one of the best parts of our lives and I’ll miss it when they’ve gone on to start their own independent lives.


  • I’m over 50 and every night somewhere between 8:30 and 9:30 I jump online and play 1 or 2 hours of strategy games with my friends. I don’t watch TV. I don’t watch sports. This is my evening entertainment.

    I have three kids who are all teenagers now and I’ve basically done this throughout my adult life. This has been a way for me to keep my friend group together. I have about six friends who do this with me and they are from a variety of different places, some as far back as junior high and high school. I think it’s an extremely healthy way for a bunch of nerds to have a social group.




  • “digging thru trash and bunch of obscure websites for info, using critical thinking to filter and refine your results”

    You’re highlighting a barrier to learning that in and of itself has no value. It’s like arguing that kids today should learn cursive because you had to and it exercises the brain! Don’t fool yourself into thinking that just because you did something one way that it’s the best way. The goal is to learn and find solutions to problems. Whatever tool allows you to get there the easiest is the best one.

    Learning through textbooks and one way absorption of information is not an efficient way to learn. Having the ability to ask questions and challenge a teacher (in this case the AI), is a far superior way to learn IMHO.


  • The thing is… AI is making me smarter! I use AI as a learning tool. The absolute best thing about AI is the ability to follow up questions with additional questions and get a better understanding of a subject. I use it to ask about technical topics and flush out a better understanding that I ever got from just a text book. I have seem some instances of hallucinating in the past, but with the current generation of AI I’ve had very good results and consider it an excellent tool for learning.

    For reference I’m an engineer with over 25 years of experience and I am considered an expert in my field.





  • I’m glad, but I’m still pretty damn irritated that we’re all seemingly “ok” with the fact that we just have “liberal” and “conservative” judges.

    The thing I’ve realized as I’ve gotten older is that the difference between liberal and conservative in the US is almost more a question of how we think rather than what we think. When I was younger I thought it was simply that conservative people had one set of values and liberals another, but that’s flat out wrong.

    The way information is presented to a conservative in their media is much different from how information is presented to a liberal is their media. This leads to a difference in how people think (or maybe the difference was there to begin with and they self selected their media of choice). Try having a conversation with a person of the opposite political persuasion, it’s really hard because you both try to convert the argument to your own structure. Both people end up arguing over the structure more than the issue because once the structure has been agreed upon, the topic almost answers itself.

    Once you realize that “liberal” and “conservative” is the way someone thinks and not just if they root for team R or team D, it’s much easier to come to terms that judges are “liberal” or “conservative” at a more intrinsic level.






  • Hey, you do you. I have no problem with it if it comes naturally. But any sort of expectation here just gives me the cringe-shivers. If the woman expects someone to open the door for her, yikes! If the man expects that he’s the one to open the car door for the woman, yikes! And the basis of this thread seemed to be more around a woman expecting to have the car door opened for her which is why I wrote what I wrote.


  • I always found the concept of a man opening a car door for a woman exceptionally insulting to women. I’ll open doors for people when I’m walking with them, man or woman, but running ahead of a woman to open the car door for them is cringeworthy * 10. I get second-hand embarrassment shivers just thinking about doing it on a first date.

    I like strong, independent, and capable women who are perfectly able to open car doors for themselves. Women who can hold their own in a conversation, are comfortable splitting a check, who are smart and educated, and who don’t need to me protect them like they are delicate flowers. I have never been with or talked with a woman in my social group (that I know of) who expected a man to open a car door for them.