The stars used to tell the company if you thought the video quality was good.

The stars now tell the company how to tailor a version of reality specifically to what you want to see and feel.

No need to look it up, fact-check or confirm this or verify context. It was posted with a picture of the man so it must be true.

Every “rising” company has a few people like this, a few key players who know the field or have such niche expertise that they get given the largest leeway and most room to do whatever they want, as long as the results keep coming in.

The catch here is that the more successful the company gets, the more power and flexibility they have to get the exact kind of employee they want. So if you dream of being in this position, be careful and don’t let it go to your head just because you were free to join the meeting 10 minutes late in your pajamas in the early days.

Yeah also blocked 'em. There are some absolute knobs on this site. I swear on reddit my block list was over a hundred deep after 10 years. Here it went up to a hundred within a couple months.

It’s the smaller-community vibe makes trolls and people with personality disorders feel like they get more response fucking with people. People on larger sites I think they are more hesitant to get scrutiny from larger numbers of people, which really betrays how insecure they are.

You’re just egotistical and self-centered. But if I were being dramatic I wouldn’t have bothered giving you the hard truth of reality: If you don’t make the most basic effort towards clear communication, especially if you’re doing it on purpose, people are going to gloss over what you said or not take you seriously, and you will get ignored and shut out of further communication.

Like I’m doing now.

If your choice of self expression makes me stumble when trying to read it, I am not making extra effort. This is how most people feel. It must feel spectacular being so incredibly smart in a world full of first graders. You must be fabulously wealthy and powerful.

I couldn’t read it, but also I don’t care enough to try.

So the moral of the story: you do you, but don’t whine if a lot of people don’t absorb your information. At some point you have to ask if you’re just performing for yourself or if you actually care about what you’re saying on a broader level.

I love how the word “daddy” has been as ruined as the word “step sister” or “step brother.” We cannot have nice things.

I mean, we can have nice things but we tend to always try to find ways to fuck them.

When you subcontract your dyson sphere out to the lowest bidding AI.

Shitty AI generated Dyson Sphere is off-center. Whole thing is going to destabilize and collapse.

I would hate to work in fast food just trying to get through my shitty day for shitty pay and keep getting weird, stupid prank orders so people online can get upvotes.

If you have an interesting life then you can commandeer small talk and make it interesting. It’s an opportunity to introduce other material.

Just reread it without the benefit of knowing your own intentions and think about how it sounds. (Also a great thing to do in conversation.)

Wait… I am almost positive you were my last manager.

Counterpoint: ya’ll are taking sex too seriously.

I know this is a joke, but I know well from experience that some kids are reading this joke and going “oh shit, what if I accidentally start going YEP YEP YEP the day I actually have sex!”

If you’re not having fun and if you’re afraid of saying the wrong thing and looking awkward or silly, you’re with the wrong person. Go do whatever you want with anyone who consents, but it should NOT be stressful, it’s like the ONE thing we do together where we drop all our guards and be vulnerable and silly with each other. You can’t possibly be naked with someone and not feel a little silly, but you should also feel safe to be silly.

This is what a lot of people don’t get about small-talk, and OP’s image touches on it, it’s not about educating someone how trains work (looking at you fellow autists) it’s about playing a short game where you gauge each other’s receptiveness to friendliness or a desire to socialize. If your small-talk partner isn’t receptive, has nothing to say and seems disinterested, you take your leave. You say “Hey I gotta run, see ya around!” and just leave it at that.

(Guys, this is also how you talk to girls you don’t know, it’s literally the entirety of volumes of pickup artist bullshit condensed into one paragraph without any weird games or sexist bullshit. Just make small-talk, see if they want to engage back, AND THEN WALK THE FUCK AWAY if they’re icy to you. If they don’t respond, that doesn’t mean they didn’t hear you, and no you don’t get a second chance in this conversation, you will make it worse if you keep trying to talk to someone not interested. I am shocked how hard this is for so many guys to understand. And fully prepared to piss insecure midwits off with this factual take because it triggers SO many insecure people to talk about how to socialize properly.)

This is a really good way to get hated if you make every chat about some crazy thing that happened in your life, whether or not it’s real.

People like an occasional wild story but if you’re always “commandeering” small talk, people will avoid you. If you want people to actually enjoy hanging out with you, you have to balance this with a lot more asking questions about them, and making them feel equally important to the interaction.

We’ve done some craaazy shit to plants, yo.

Do the Star Wars aliens count?

I can’t think of any “anthro” characters in Star Wars other than Ewoks and Wookies, which I’m sure there is some niche forum or subreddit out there dedicated to fawning over Chewie’s long, shaggy hair, but not quite what I mean.

Marvel had a few characters but none of them have been introduced in the MCU as “attractive” in any capacity. (They did my girl Wolfsbane wrong.)

But I feel more like this most days.