I love your thoughts here. I hadn’t ever thought of ways you can last minute engineer a way for the vehicle to keep the pedestrian from being crushed rather than thrown up

I like this - but would companies that fail (in being second) not get credit for their work? You could imagine the second place actually having a more effective product at the end.

Wait - can you explain this further?

Why depreciating asset?

Also, they probably aren’t selling it right? Just using as a rent-free option after paying mortgage to lower cost of living?

What am I missing?

I think you’re also a brilliant fellow human.

This explains so freaking much about how everyone is always terrified of Canadian health care when it works decently well. (Perfect? No!) But so many of their problems in accessing specialists are identical to ours. (Most common argument I hear.)

And it was just so much easier getting on antidepressants and switching up my birth control methods while I was in Canada than if I had tried the same in the US.

As someone who regularly mispronounces this as rhyming with almonds I feel a little attacked

I also say the following wrong: Ikea, Nutella, idea. Somehow my bilingual brain just gives up.

A two party system was one of George Washington’s fear. It breeds division while both sides occupy themselves making us emotional about how much the other side does wrong. Then they get more donations and more power. They don’t care if they aren’t effective because they know we won’t ever go to the other side.

… There’s a great Freakonomics episode on the duopoly formed by the Democratic and Republican parties and how they both benefit while stifling the competition from other parties that could provide more varied perspective.

My takeaway - support rank choices voting and elimination of closed primaries (which encourage extremism in candidates).

Nurses deal with criminals, mentally ill, homeless, and people resisting their help for 12 hours a shift on weekdays, weekends, and nights. They don’t go crazy on people.

But beware the nipples.

Remember to support systems/organizations working to make changes that allow for challengers from outside the main two parties to succeed. (Like ranked choice voting where not voting democratic doesn’t mean giving power to Republican or vice versa!)

I like everyone’s answers here.

1a. Definitely take at least some consideration of what your mental health looks like over those periods. It could be a symptom. (Not that you won’t sadly still need coping strategies regardless. Mental health issues just suck.)

1b. Do you have a career where there are seasonal variations in workload? Are coworkers or family or friends potentially influencing your spending behavior?

2. You’ve already heard of YNAB. (And it’s like only 10% a cult? 😂) I think it could be a useful tool for you. Since you seem to hate the minutia keep your categories dirt simple. Debt payments, short term fun, fixed expenses. Break them down only so far as they are useful for YOU. YNAB will get pretty good at guessing categories for you these days.

3. Consider what you are working towards when you are in a working hard phase. What makes those savings worthwhile? Afterall - money is only a means to an end. I find it easier to save and consider giving up buying that $800 pair of new powder skis I really don’t need if I know it’s to go on an epic honeymoon in a year. Personally and maybe not as easily applicable, I’ve had an issue of saving too much… so I also gave myself the list of goals I was saving for and what timeline I wanted for them and I avoid saving more than I need for those things over that time. (Retirement, wedding, down payment, honeymoon, student loans.) After that set amount… all the money is mine to do what I want with so I can spend it on what makes me happy without guilting over it.

Thank you for the write up! It looks great!

I have a question out of curiosity… Is it supportive in a good way or do the ab and back muscles start to weaken with time if you don’t make an effort to strengthen them?

If you say guns kill people one more time, I will shoot you with a gun, and you will, coincidentally, die.

<3 from the Welcome to Nightvale NRA

Every time you think it can’t get weirder.

So fun fact - the clothes were made to look like the proportions were wild and therefore historical corsets were not as crazy tight as we would assume.

… my phone is always dying so I think I’d like living in a desert otherworld where my phone mysteriously never dies

I can respect that. But also- set aside money on a regular basis (cash in an envelope for the physical reality or in a budgeting app) until you have enough to get one. And then splurge on that or something else you want more by then!

Agreed.

If anyone wants to further argue, note the issue is that we’ve built a country where cars are necessary. (And yet not so necessary that someone’s license can’t be suspended!) However, there is no reason why this can’t be changed. Saying it can’t is limiting our future to also think cars are necessary. They aren’t. They are useful in many places. But you could do without them if as a society we decided to do that. Dream bigger everyone! Have a world where you DON’T need to sit in traffic every day. Where you DON’T wait at red light after red light. Where you DON’T need to be a designated driver for your friends. Where you DON’T fear the day your vision gets so bad you lose your independence. Where you DON’T need to spend hundreds on insurance and car purchases and parking tickets and everything else. If we don’t dream it, we can’t ask for it. And if we don’t ask for it, what we have now will be what we’re stuck with.

(And if you want to have a car and have fun - sure! But then it’ll be extra fun when it’s not a requirement and fewer cars are on the road!)

Cars are not technically necessary. But we regulate them heavily - through licensing, safety tests, and policing. And your license can be pulled or suspended so that you cannot drive.

Why? Because they are deadly. Just because something isn’t created to kill (say… To protect your family? To get you to your job?) doesn’t mean it can’t kill.

Sadly, we live in a country where freedom and rights are valued more than community and respect.

But as the welcome to nightvale NRA says: “Guns don’t kill people. We’re all invincible and it’s a miracle.” (Podcast.)