Posts by Joseph Watson3

To honestly looks more like some cheap knockoff of a GPT-3 chatbot to me.

Anyway, I don't run into those HTTPS issues—I just use a VPN.

This thread is basically a car crash.

The moderator seems to be really leaning into this role of being the public savior—protecting us from any supposed panic—by deleting posts and banning anyone who dares to disagree with his "analysis."
The backbone of this alleged analysis? Unreliable statistics, blatant cherry-picking of those same unreliable stats, and a total failure to grasp how exponential growth actually works. Not to mention a complete misunderstanding of the risks involved when dealing with something largely unknown that happens to be spreading exponentially.

briskjackal5 is one of the few people actually writing quality posts and asking intelligent questions, yet the moderator is acting like a toddler in a sandbox, throwing tantrums under the guise of "preventing panic." He’s so caught up in the drama—as if he’s the only thing standing between us and everyone jumping off buildings out of pure terror.

ambertinker10 said:I find myself wondering about your individual perspectives—your temperaments, your aspirations, and the practical realities you face.

In the title, I have referenced a classic proverb, though many such sayings exist: A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

What I truly wish to ask is how you interpret these old adages that reflect the essence of life; I must admit, I often find that these truths, forged over generations, remain fundamentally accurate.

Would you prefer to:

-Remain in a smaller town or rural area where you could afford a spacious house with room for children to play, rather than settling for a cramped 600-square-foot apartment?

-Or would you choose a larger home in your own local city—perhaps somewhere within commuting distance of NYC—rather than moving to NYC itself, where you might end up with much less space for $333 less income, given that you can often achieve more with a modest salary in your hometown?

-Or perhaps purchase a larger residence in a less prestigious neighborhood of NYC, instead of a tiny unit in one of the "elite" districts?

-Would you rather be a small business owner in your community with enough to live comfortably, or chase higher earnings in a major metropolitan hub just to afford a $60,000 car, knowing that more money inevitably brings more stress?

I could provide endless examples, but I trust my general meaning is clear. While larger cities offer vastly more opportunities, the competition is far more cutthroat, and the pace of life becomes significantly more frantic.

Personally, I am a more tranquil individual; I would favor a house in the suburbs over an urban apartment. However, my primary consideration is what sacrifices should be made for the sake of one's children—specifically, how to prepare them for the intense competition found in larger environments.

Of course, all of this assumes one possesses at least a basic level of financial stability, which is unfortunately not the case for many, making it one of the primary drivers behind people relocating far from home in search of work.

Honestly, the best move is to stop obsessing over what people think or chasing some arbitrary social status.
If you let your small town—or even your entire city—dictate your moves and define what success looks like for you, you aren't a leader anymore; you're just someone else's errand boy.

Harold Wilson5 said:Thanks everyone for the unexpectedly positive responses and for being so understanding! 🙂

A lot of people suggested I should switch careers or that my current job just isn't fulfilling, but that's not quite it. That’s why it was actually pretty hard for me to pinpoint the exact issue and even start this thread, though I think Joseph Watson3 and addx really hit the nail on the head regarding the core problem.
I actually enjoy my profession, but this whole concept of working a rigid 8-hour day—regardless of whether it's productive or necessary—just doesn't sit right with me. I feel like I could utilize my skills much more intelligently if I could just distribute them throughout the day (and yes, that would include work).

This is truly eye-opening (and not the first time you've said something like this).
I assume you were in the exact same situation, because this resonates 100%.
Now I just need to figure out what the alternative actually looks like. I suppose it happens gradually rather than all at once?

Well, that was just an illustration to say I didn't see myself as just middle management, but rather at the top—not for the sake of others, but because everything felt so easy for me that aiming higher felt like a more challenging goal. 🙂

Exactly. That's the fundamental flaw in the modern workforce.
Even if the work itself is engaging or fulfilling, being forced to subordinate your entire life to a rigid schedule—spending your eight or nine best hours of peak productivity tethered to a specific desk—basically ruins the whole experience.
Quotation:

This is genuinely eye-opening (and not the first time you've said something like this). I suspect you've been in this exact position before, because I relate to this 100%. Now I just need to figure out what the actual alternative looks like. I assume it's a gradual transition rather than an overnight shift?

Not really—my jobs have always been more creative and liberated than the average role (given it's science), but even then, it isn't quite the utopia people make it out to be.
That said, I'm well-acquainted with the lives of corporate drones through others' experiences, and I firmly believe it's better to learn from someone else's mistakes than your own.😁

analogorca6 said:You’re looking at ambition all wrong.
You say you’d rather skip the grind entirely by age 40 just to hang out with friends and family.
In reality, that’s basically saying you want to retire early. To pull that off, you’d have to build massive wealth or set up multiple passive income streams before you hit 40. We're talking having a net worth of, say, $5 million just to live without checking your bank account every morning.

Hitting a target like that requires a level of discipline, expertise, and sheer grit that makes your college ambitions look like child's play.

You've clearly watched too many movies. You can generate an income comparable to an average American salary with assets worth a few hundred thousand dollars—say, owning two or three rental properties (not to mention other smarter investment options).

Harold Wilson5 said:I’m not quite sure where to begin this story.

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always been ahead of the curve. School was honestly too easy for me—even through high school—so I would breeze through with straight A's without much effort. To keep things interesting and feed my ambition, I’d constantly push myself by entering competitions and taking on extra extracurricular activities.
Eventually, I decided to pursue a demanding university degree that would finally offer a real challenge and set the stage for a solid career path.
Back then, I had this clear vision of myself as a high-powered executive or running my own company.

Everything changed during my college years when my brother passed away suddenly. That was the turning point for me.
It was almost like a sudden realization hit me: so many things in life just aren't worth the stress. For instance, I stopped feeling guilty about postponing an exam or even failing one if I felt like it.
Even so, I managed to graduate on time and landed a great job.

At the same time, while we were always close, I found myself growing even closer to my parents. They mean the world to me, and now, I have a wonderful husband and our family life is incredibly harmonious.

Now, after five years on the job, I’m feeling something I’ve never felt before: complete burnout. Even though my job is dynamic and actually pretty cool, I feel like there just aren't enough hours in the day to enjoy my own life.
I suppose it’s a combination of
- the fact that nothing feels challenging enough anymore. I work way faster than my colleagues, so I'm left with a choice: either pull a double workload for the same pay, or spend half my shift surfing the web or reading, which eventually gets boring.
- my brother's passing and the realization that my happiest moments are spent with family and friends. Now, those eight hours at the office—plus the hour or so I spend commuting—feel like wasted time.
- the fact that my husband and I managed to get ahead of our finances early on, especially regarding our housing situation, so I don't have that crushing financial pressure forcing me to stay.
- the age gap at work; most of my colleagues are much older, so there isn't really any social buzz or grabbing drinks after work—it's just strictly showing up for eight hours and leaving.
- watching the bosses and owners grind for ten or more hours every single day, living in constant stress over monthly targets.

I caught myself thinking the other day that by my late thirties or early forties, I’d much rather work just four hours a day at a relaxed pace, maybe something remote, or even just retire early to focus on being present for my family, future children, and friends.
I honestly have no idea where that ambitious girl went—the one who wanted to be number one and a leader in her field.

I don't know what I want from this thread. Maybe I just need to vent, or perhaps I want to see if others have gone through this. Was this just a phase for you, or did it stick?

It sounds like you just finally saw through the social conditioning—that whole myth that everyone needs to grind eight hours a day (or chase some grand career) and somehow find deep fulfillment in it. It's total bullshit.
There are much bigger things in life than that.

Once you see the truth, there’s no going back.

And once you pivot to working maybe four hours a day—or better yet, just a few hours a week—doors open up that people stuck in the daily 9-to-5 rat race can't even begin to wrap their heads around.
If you actually have the option to work less, why on earth would you work more just because society tells you that's how it's done? It's pretty nonsensical.

This host is a textbook example of a low-level bureaucrat with absolutely nothing going on behind those eyes.
The whole thing was supposedly meant to show kids the potential downsides of different career paths. 😁

Financial repression in America is hitting hard, and honestly, it’ll likely get worse—mostly because the government and its endless circle of parasites need more ways to fund their growing overhead.
It’s reached a point where the IRS is basically sticking its hands into money you’ve already paid taxes on, including stuff earned abroad.
As for the idiots out there cheering for even more oversight—the ones who think "justifying" your assets or proving your innocence to some mindless bureaucrat whose only job is to skin you alive is a good idea—well, karma will eventually catch up with them.

On a practical note, it might be smart to have a signed statement from a grandparent or a close relative claiming they gifted you, say, $10k, $50k, or even $100k—their entire life savings they happened to keep tucked away in a sock.
That kind of thing stays tax-free.

BTW, while some banks are stupid enough to flag cash kept in a home safe, others aren't quite that dim.

briskranger5 said:Let’s be honest: the title here is nonsense. We aren't talking about something normal, are we?

I won't drone on forever, so I'll try to make my point concisely, though I’m happy to answer any questions you might have.

I see it all around me—and maybe I’m guilty of it too—people who grew up with nothing and spent their entire lives grinding just to build something substantial. They sacrificed everything to get there. But then they hit this certain age where their children are well-off, their grandkids are comfortable... yet they haven't changed one bit. They still obsess over every single cent, treating a cheap bottle of Jack Daniel's like it's some grand luxury.🙂

And I’m not even talking about your average retiree. I’m talking about the people who actually built something through sweat and grit on construction sites or in tough trades.

Some might argue it’s just a generational thing, but I see plenty of examples of this happening right now.

Personally, I can be pretty frugal, but I’m not so sure I could ever go to such extremes, even for my own flesh and blood.

What about you?

Different people just have different priorities. What looks like stinginess or unnecessary deprivation to one person might not look that way to someone else—maybe they simply don't care for those things, or they think the value just isn't there for the price tag.

It’s a bit like a five-year-old trying to understand the perspective of a candy store owner. That kid spends all day staring at rows of colorful sweets, only to trade them for little scraps of paper.
In the kid's mind, any sane person would just lock the doors and eat the whole inventory themselves!

goldenhound32 said:So, you don't have an issue with fake news?

Why is that?

Because I honestly couldn't care less.
Every single day, thousands of bottom-tier gossip sites churn out articles—whether they're true or complete fiction—about people who don't actually matter.
You’d have to be incredibly immature—or just deeply insecure and bitter—to let it get under your skin, or worse, to actually start comparing yourself to some random influencer featured on a trashy tabloid.
If someone is actually bothered by that, the issue isn't with the articles; it's with them.

Robin Johnson said:"I honestly don't get..." Yeah, I can tell you're struggling to get it.

The passive aggression is practically dripping off your words—honestly, maybe a little CBT would do you some good.

Personally, I think you could use a dictionary—since you clearly have no idea what passive aggression actually means.

Robin Johnson said:That’s exactly my point. If you’re a serious designer or an entrepreneur who’s actually built something tangible, you’re going to insist—and any decent journalist would happily oblige—that your specific products get mentioned and even photographed.
Because that article is free promo! It’s your work and it represents your career achievements.

I can't think of a single legitimate jewelry or furniture designer whose feature wasn't backed up by actual portfolio pieces and hard numbers.

And this bit about the guy making her a bag? That’s like me saying I met a kitchen designer who built a kitchen based on my vision.

In reality, I just found a carpenter and paid him to build a custom kitchen for me. Suddenly, there are tons of "designers" that carpenters are fighting over.😁
Anyone who orders a custom kitchen is an incredibly successful entrepreneur.
I wouldn't dream of putting something like that on my resume.

A sensible question from a journalist (who isn't just her buddy) would be: "So, how many of those wooden bags did you actually sell?"

Glad I'm not the only one who thinks this kind of smoke and mirrors is harmful—not just for kids, but for adults too.

If you aren't sharp enough to read between the lines, you're going to end up feeling totally screwed.

The worst part is that there are people out there who are genuinely successful, yet there's zero coverage of them. There's no need to write fluff pieces about Mirandas when there are truly accomplished people doing the work. The internet offers endless opportunities today.

Honestly, if someone is getting worked up over some mindless article about a total stranger, they have an issue with themselves—not with the news cycle.
I find it hard to wrap my head around why an adult would let stuff like this bother them, whether the stories are true or not.

But, if what you're saying is actually true—that there are people out there feeling miserable (or maybe inadequate, or jealous, etc.) when they read success stories about others—then these articles are actually doing a service.
After all, cognitive behavioral therapy suggests that the best way to handle those kinds of negative reactions is through exposure therapy to the very thing triggering them.

And the worst part is that there are plenty of genuinely successful people out there who never get featured, because apparently there's no need to write about people like Miranda when there are "actually" successful people available. The internet offers endless opportunities these days.

Truly successful people don't feel the need to promote themselves on trashy clickbait sites.

Looks like the post got nuked.

Anthony Perez9 said:If it wasn't for this post, I would've missed out on some top-tier poetry. 👍
God bless Milton Hershey. 😁

It would have slipped past me too. 👍

And as for these geniuses rambling on about pedophilia—are you perhaps projecting your own fantasies involving children? Honestly, I’ve read the entire thread and I don't see any pedophilia in there. Of course, unless you're reading your own delusions into the text to fit your specific little fantasies.

Jack Moore90 said:Do you actually live in America?

It’s irrelevant. Let’s just say I own a house in KDžR—now I have concerns. ☕

crimsonjackal63 said:Is it actually allowed under the forum rules to use terms like "Amerekan" or similar variations?
Personally, I don't think so—not according to the forum guidelines, and certainly not under current US laws.
Thanks in advance for the clarification.

Personally, I much prefer the term Katolibani Jamahiriya Rvatistan.
Hopefully, that isn't illegal and the religious police won't come knocking on my door. ☕

Since when did mentioning a general site like libgen.org count as piracy? I guess by that logic, bringing up YouTube is also piracy—given there’s an endless amount of pirated content on there. Not to mention Google, with all those pirated links just sitting right there.
Does anyone here actually understand what copyright infringement even means?

God, where does everything go wrong when idiots start making up the rules. 🤦

stormyraven14 said:I’d like to suggest that the moderators consider banning posts that clearly smell like religious provocations—it might be worth carding them, too. Around here, faith is so deeply intertwined with social issues, though that certainly doesn't mean it shouldn't be mentioned at all...
The Zodiac Killer is starting to make a presence in the "nature and society" subforum, and if we pay attention and standardize our criteria, this could actually become a quite pleasant place again.

Why am I bringing this up? Well, because I was one of the first people to use terms like "non-humans" and "altar-lickers" on that very topic—which are basically insults targeting religious foundations. Unfortunately, I didn't realize what I had actually written until Kevin Mitchell20 and gzena warned me—each in their own way. Posts like mine should be carded, because from an outsider's perspective, it really looks like it's okay to lash out at an entire group with such ugly language. Just because most writers there probably know I don't have any personal beef with believers—especially not as a whole—doesn't mean I (or anyone else) should express myself that way. If nothing else, we should do it for the sake of the decent believers who just read along, but don't dare post because of the general atmosphere... or because they feel insulted before they even get a word in due to the prejudice that believers are inherently backward, or whatever other themes are slowly becoming the leitmotif here on the Zodiac Killer.

Insulting and marginalizing people based on their religious beliefs is against the law, whether that faith is the majority or a minority 🤷

As for politics—having concrete political debates wouldn't make the Zodiac Killer any more pleasant anyway; I actually like the ban. Politics in America is often just another word for corruption, and there are other ways to talk about it—bringing up things like the Civil War or the Red Scare feels pretty unnecessary...

If memory serves, you called those altar-lickers hypocrites—specifically Catholics who push for discrimination while claiming to follow Christian doctrine.
That’s actually a pretty sharp, concise way to describe that subset of people; it isn't an insult to believers in general, but rather a satire of a specific subgroup. It's no different than calling them Catholicists.
Banning terms like that would be the absolute bottom of political correctness—much like everything else in America lately where things seem upside down—and nothing more than a shameful surrender to small-mindedness.
If that's the direction we're heading, we might as well just shut down the whole subforum right now.

Charles Ramos7 said:That's true, but seeing massive numbers on a screen is just part of the daily grind for them.
And honestly, I don't think you can ever truly stay off the radar, whether it's the banks or the IRS.

edit: also, like I mentioned, they could probably just wire funds to someone else's account if they wanted to, though I'm not sure how much that actually changes anything.

Actually, you can—if you open a numbered account at a Swiss bank. In that case, your identity stays known to only a handful of people rather than being stored across endless networks and servers.

Charles Ramos7 said:If privacy is such a huge issue, why don't we just have someone shout out the full name of the last Powerball winner? 🙂 Or the one before that, or the one before them...☕

Weak anonymity doesn't mean everyone is posting on every street corner—it just means anyone with enough curiosity can figure you out. And let’s be honest, this becomes easy to crack if you either have an inside connection at the Powerball or just a few thousand bucks burning a hole in your pocket.
A situation from a neighboring country:

Nicholas King said:Tomorrow, I’m potentially looking at hitting a massive jackpot on the Powerball—we're talking serious, life-changing millions. Naturally, my first instinct is to stay completely under the radar. But let's be real for a second: if that money hits my local bank account here in the States, I might as well just walk onto the set of the ABC Evening News or call into Antenna and announce it myself—my anonymity would be gone in thirty minutes flat.

I'm actually being serious here: what should someone do once they land a windfall of that magnitude if they actually want to maintain some level of privacy? Wouldn't attempting to wire those funds into an offshore account—which seems like a logical workaround—just end up triggering all those international agencies tasked with anti-money laundering, or perhaps even catching the eye of someone else who might get a little too curious about such a massive transfer?

Your anonymity is pretty much non-existent from the jump if half the lottery officials already have your name on file.
If we set that aside, Switzerland offers some of the most private banking in Europe—it stays anonymous to everyone (except the bank itself) unless there's actual proof the funds came from criminal activity. Until then, banks aren't obligated to leak your balance to anyone, and they don't.

If you're looking for extreme levels of secrecy—where even the bank doesn't truly know who you are—you won't find that in Europe, but you can find it in places like Panama.