FrontierPsych

Yes. When you are in your 20s, you only can go out to your first sushi restaurant or first thai restaurant *one time.* You only can be a virgin once. The second time is pretty good, but if you go out to sushi 100 times, it's not too special, it is boring. By the time you hit 27 or 30, it's pretty much "been there, done that" on most everything. Sure, once in a while there's a new experience, but for me, it's usually only once a year, maybe twice on a good year.

I've been to the Monteray Aquarium in Monteray, CA. As a matter-of-fact, I went to a special dinner where the company rented it out and had dinner there, and I sat in front of the biggest glass wall where sharks and sea turtles and stuff swam by the whole dinner. I read an article about a hotel room in Dubai or someplace like that, where the room had an aquarium from floor to ceiling and had some boring-ass fish in it. They rented it out for $10,000 per night because of this fish tank. I'm like, YAWN, I had dinner at the Monteray Aquarium. But why go to another aquarium again - I've seen one, the best one. Yeah, ok, I'd go to one, but let's be honest, it would be pretty anti-climatic. Boring, at least to me.

Yes, the world does become boring.

>That said, as someone who prizes ethical behavior, it's not possible to practice this and remain wholly honest

Yes, I get it. When I go for job interviews, they ask me what my weaknesses are, I say that I fuck off every once in a while, that I will sometimes badmouth the company and my boss after I leave the company. That sometimes I go to the company bathroom and masterbate to relieve stress. That I don't really like my mother because she is a meth addict all her life even when she was pregnant with me so when I was in her womb, I was basically on meth, too, and it really fucked up my mental capacities and so sometimes I go off in an irrational manner and maybe will start yelling at people. I belch and fart a lot, too and that usually upsets co-workers.

I go on and on like this for about 20 minutes on all my weaknesses, because I want to make sure that I completely answer their question in an ethical manner, because I don't lie by ommission. They didn't ask me what my "strengths disguesed as a weakness" were, or how to "spin it by giving the best picture of myself" and "market myself" to them.

It's the same with women when they ask about me. I say that I fart and burp a lot as mentioned above. They are not regular farts but real stench bombs. I also pick my nose a lot in public and then eat it but not when people can see.

So far, I can't get a job for the last 15 years despite my interviewing 80-100 interviews per year. And no girlfriend.

But at least I can be internally happy because I'm ethical and honest and never lie, and give the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

I did a google search, and urband dictionary search, and even a bing search. None of them have anything on "meme price." I assume from the context that you are saying that he paid too much, which, maybe in the fute-fute (I am going to start using that word for "future"), maybe say he paid too much. Especially since "meme price" is, like, you know, nowhere to be found on the internets. octothorpic meme price - makes me agelast.

>Again, the fact: Elon purchased Twitter at a grosely overvalued meme price.

Maybe you're right, maybe not. We will see. But as far as I know, nobody knows the future. But maybe you are right out of Star Trek and are from the future because you travled through a interdimensional portal and know what's going to happen.

In any case, if Twitter and Musk are around 2 years from now, I will expect you to search me out here and grovel and apologize to me.

>And to be clear, the only thing he has ever founded is SpaceX.

I was waiting for someone to bring up this comment. I knew it would come, sooner or later.

The fact of the matter is that he took those pre-existing tiny companies and build them into huge corporations. He also didn't build roads, stoplights, sewer systems and everything else needed to run a multibillion dollar company.

And, Twitter is not a startup either. If he could build the companies he either started from scratch or took over and built them up to multi-billion dollar companies, that take a shitload of skill.

>He is nothing more than a rich kid, who made some good investments, and then claimed the work of his employees as his own

If it is so easy, you do it. Get some investors together and create a bunch of huge companies, if it is so easy. Everyone says what you're saying but if it is so easy, why are there not dozens of other real smart people out there doing this? Your statement defeats itself.

I am NOT saying that Twitter won't implode. But time will tell. Shit, people have been predicting the doom of Tesla since Musk bought it in 2004. I remember the doom predictors all along and each step of the way. Yet 20 years later, it's still here. Can Tesla fail? Can SpaceX fail? Can all his other ventures fail? Of course. But companies, big and small, fail all the time, with "super experiened adults" who run it.

But as far as corporations go, a bloated staff is the prime reason why companies fail. That has always been my opinion.

And to sit there and say that Musk doesn't know about tech is supremely ignorant. The guy has top talent in Tesla, SpaceX and other companies. Shoot, he had to hire loads of talent for SpaceX and got the rocket to land on a platform to reuse it. He had his engineers design the lock to dock with ISS. He had engineers program all the trajectories to get it exactl to the ISS. He has satellites, which require a lot of expertise. That's only SpaceX.

For Tesla, despite him not starting it, he massively expanded it and had to hire tech people galore. He purchased the NUMMI auto plant in Fremont California, already set up to make cars, in 2010. Brilliant. He didn't have to build an auto manufacturing plant from the ground up. Probably a half a billion dollars he saved.

He saved billions in landing his rockets for SpaceX.

Musk is the one that brought in the talent for SpaceX and Tesla. I'm sure he has a lot of brilliant people helping him run Tesla and it is not just him. I'm 100% positive he brought in his own tech staff who he knows and trusts, and who know his management style of squeezing every drop of productivity out of people, which is not a bad thing. It's a good thing. And there are people who love it. The employees that hate it are the ones who want to play pingpong at work, who want free food, who want free massages daily and so on.

He's a heck of a lot more than a rich kid. If this is so, everyone would do better than him. Or at least there should be 5 or 10 super talented individuals in the USA that could, out of 330 million people. But nobody has done what he has done before he did it, and none now that he is and showed others what he has done, and personally I doubt if anyone will do it in the future.

He didn't just buy the stock and sit back and drink pina coladas on a Spanish seashore for the last 20 years. The guy sleeps in his companies to show the example of what he will do. It's like Bill Gates used to take only commercial flights, and not business or first class, but the regular cattle economy class, even when he was worth $30 billion. Why? To set the example of what he expects. What high-level executive would dare take business class when the CEO doesn't? None, that's how many. It is imperative that the CEO set the tone of what the company is about. The days of pingpong playing at Twitter are over.

Do I agree with the things he's done at Twitter? No. I always think bringing up politics is stupid. You can lose 1/2 your business with one sentence, be it liberal or conservative comments, especially in our politically polarized times. Just look at the Dixie Chicks for an example.

But all those other things that you and other people are saying are, in my view, just plain wrong. It's all about the politics, and that's it.

hmm...that sounds like a dangerous opinion you are holding there. Are you sure you are not a jerkoff? Not accusing, just asking. And, this has meant as a quasi-humorous post for all of you who don't quite click with humor.

Dangerous opinions are in the eyes of the beholder. Another person being a jerkoff is in the eye of the beholder. OK, not Hitler, he actually was a jerkoff.

Not really.

The people he is talking about are holding themselves out as authorities on what makes a billion dollar company succeed or fail, despite their never having been there. Musk has multiple huge companies that he built from the ground up.

The people talking out their ass riducule themselves. This guy is just pointing that fact out.

>How are you going to hire amazing devs when the devs you have left are kinda mediocre or working due to coercion (h1b) rather than more positive reasons?

There's a lot of companies shedding tech talent right now. Those people are looking for jobs.

The tech industry has always been cyclical. It's just been on an up for a long time, so people who have recently started have never been through a downturn and have an inflated sense of themselves and their worth. During the dot-com bubble in 1999-ish, ask how valuable tech workers were.

I'm not saying tech isn't valuable, but I think tech workers overvalue themselves and it is most likely time for a market correction.

Elon Musk has always been known as a hard-driving manager. He does squeeze every last drop of productivity out of people. I've read all kinds of articles on this and SpaceX and his other ventures. The fact of the matter is that, believe it or not, some people thrive on this high-pressure cooker environment, and not the ping-pong playing, foosball playing, getting massages every day environment. Hard for coddled techs to understand, I know, I know.

But he has kept a LOT of techs for SpaceX, which fuck....talk about tech and the ability to land the rocket and get rockets to the ISS, fuuuuck. So he knows a thing or two about it, unlike us armchair quarterbacks.

>What do you think Twitters sales pitch is to potential new hires?

"Be part of a team that can re-build this great company from the ground up. Be part of something great. You will work hard and I will have exceptionally great expectations of you, but consider what Musk has accomplished - Paypal, SpaceX, Tesla, etc,etc. Do you want to be with a wishy-washy company that coddles you or be with a someone who transforms society. Yes, we got rid of a lot of people, we had to in order to pare down everything so there was not a lot of bloat. That is what Musk has always done and he is successful so he will be successful here."

Again, maybe YOU wouldn't like that sales pitch, but there will be a lot of techs out there that will. That's all that matters. Everything else is just blah, blah, blah.

>Reliability/security/etc are all types of maintenance where most of the time you don't have a problem,....

Musk runs SpaceX, Tesla, solar companies, etc. He knows a thing or two about it.

The revenue is down 35% from last year, but what is their profitability? It's not a public company anymore, so revenue goals...who cares about them? A private owner is more concerned about profits. So did the shedding of all those positions either give profit now, or set up profitability in the future? I think so.

Planning for long-term - who cares if 500 advertisers left? The exodus of advertisers is why other advertisers should expand their advertising. Less eyeball competition, and better deals.

90% of the Fortune 500 companies that were at the top 50 years ago are no longer there, or whatever that number is. They stagnate. They don't shake themselves up. They go along to get along.

I think that a lot of people want Musk to fail, just because. People take glee in the hope that he will fail. Especially now that they don't agree with him politically. Which, for the record, I think that it was monumentally stupid to bring politics into it, on his side.

The reality is the guy spend $44 billion of his own cash. He has built many HUGE companies that he owns. I think the guy knows what he is doing. He might fuck it up, but he knows more about running huge companies than you or I, that's for sure. Could he fail? Sure, of course. But the guy put his money where his mouth is. They guy is not full of shit, he ponied up $44 billion.

He has done things that you, nor I, nor anyone else could do in 100 lifetimes. Oh, I've read the nay-sayers - he gets the public to fund things, the government to fund his things, and this and that. Well, why don't you or I, knowing this, go out and make a bunch of multibillion dollar companies that change the course of society the same way that he did? Not possible, otherwise you and I would have already done it. Except, of course, if we actually did, everyone would LOVE us and our decisions, because we would be pure and holy. WE would do it right. hahahahahaha.....sure, sure.

I'm not a Musk fanboy, but I think he did some impossible things. I just think the whole hoping he fails because of his politics is hokey and immature.

Well if you're going to be like that, then in the interview, answer all questions utterly and completely honestly. No lies of ommission or "spinning" answers to give the best first impression of yourself. So because of you now, if in an interview, someone asks me about my last boss, I'll say "he is an ignorant cunt that couldn't find his ass with both hands." Then they will say, "Wait...but you were self-employed and worked for yourself!" And I'll say, "Yes, I would not hire me under any circumstances whatsoever." I'll never get a job and starve to death, but hey, at least I'll be honest.

I got $1,000. What am I going to get from you? Nothing is not an acceptable response.

R&D is an actual thing that corporations spend money on.

If a company reads it and doesn't like it, then they don't like it. You are looking for the one who accepts your resume.

I personally have started a company, and legit spend 9 months just researching and decided not to do it. Nothing wrong with that.

First, I'd say to outsource everything. White label.

I have a company that will put a pre-existing template together for $350, and custom template for $550.

When I start, I charge a one-time startup fee to my client of either $350 or $550, so I will never be out hard costs.

I only create 5-10 page websites. Basic 5 page starts at $300 per month. They pay the first month up front. All charges are up front. Fuck collecting after the fact. I am NOT going to be chasing people for money. If they want digital marketing it can go up to $4000 per month or more, depending. Average is $2000 per month per website with digital marketing. I have them sign a 12 month agreement that they will stay at least a year. If they want to leave, I'll make noise and try to convince them not to leave, we signed an agreement, but ultimately, if they leave, fuck it. I'm not going to sue them, because fuck everything about that. The agreement is just for the honest business owners to be honest. Everything is paid for up front, so it's not like I lose money, but I will lose time and money if I try to sue. I don't worry about it or get mad or give it a second thought.

I'd never do custom programming backend because a lot of reasons. The first is it is just very expensive. When anything is very expensive, then there is a lot of risk and a lot to lose on your side and on theirs.

You do a 5 page website for $300 per month, nobody is going to get too excited if shit hits the fan and shit fucks up for whatever reason. People can just walk away. Plus, it's really hard to fuck up a 5 page website. No 250 page websites for me, thank you very much.

But really, I'd say the #1 job is to find great people or company that charges not too much but good quality and outsource it to them.

Your main job after finding a qualified outsource company or people, should be only sales and marketing and customer support, and initial layout of the website. I tell my clients that I am the symphony director - I don't play all the different instruments. Others do. I direct it all to make beautiful final product. I say no one can be an expert in everything on websites, and we can't. And I tell them I'm not going to hire 10 different people, because then I would have to triple the price of everything. Business owners understand - they don't do everything themeselves - they hire linen washers for their tablecloths and uniforms for restaurants, or parts suppliers for parts for a plumbing company.

So if you are charging about $2,000 per month per website for the website and digital marketing (you have different levels and different prices for digital marketing), then after 10 clients you are making $20,000 in monthly recurring revenue. Don't worry about the website - focus on digital marketing. That's where the money is. A website gets you $300/month recurring income, but digital marketing can get you $2,000 or more. I've sold $4,000 per month in digital marketing services. Coca-Cola spends $4 billion in marketing per year. https://investors.coca-colacompany.com/filings-reports/all-s... - see page 45 on their 10-K annual SEC filing.

As to what specific stack - I'd say if you find a reliable company to white label for you, just whatever they use is fine. The end user sure doesn't give a shit. They just want a nice looking website.

For example, Wix. They have a marketplace where you can hire Wix developers.

https://www.wix.com/marketplace

So this guy charges for a website at $199 https://www.wix.com/marketplace/wix-partner/steven-crayne?cu...

This one is a top 10 Wix designer and starts at $799. https://www.wix.com/marketplace/wix-partner/steven-crayne?cu...

And remember, whichever you choose, it costs you nothing. It costs the client. So the one time startup fee in this case you can charge $250 for the first one, or $950 for the second one. Up front.

Someone else mentioned webflow. They also have experts. https://experts.webflow.com/browse

For example, this company white-lables: https://experts.webflow.com/profile/p2h-inc

A whitesite starts at $999, but that is usually the end-user price, not the reseller pricing. But look through the developers. `

This company starts at $25,000, fuck them. https://experts.webflow.com/profile/paper-tiger

You can also conteact them and see if you can get better pricing as you are a consultant and are going to be doing all the initial design and specifications and are a professional so they won't be talking to an end user - you will be more professional and so save him or her time.

So then you can charge a minimum of $300/month for the website - ongoing revenue.

You spend 3 or 4 hours specing it out, shoot it to the developer, and you're done. Collect $300 per month.

And of course you also sell them digital marketing which is the awesomeness.

But platform and tech stack doesn't matter, in my opinion. Finding a good reliable developers is the key, and whatever they do, it's fine. Because you are not going to be doing anything fancypants. Or at least I don't. Because why?

Wix is easy for the client.

The hosting billing should be included in the monthly recurring charge - if you want to charge them $30/month for hosting, then add on $30 to the $300 and charge them $330 per month. Charge them whatever the fuck you need to. Just add it into the recurring charge. You can break it out for them if they want, but most are not going to give one fuck. One price is better. You do want to break out the marketing prices, though, as they are pricy.

The two things that will always be the best way to sell yourself/promote yourself have been, are, and will be: public writing and public speaking.

If you get published on media or give presentations at conferences, word will get around, and fast. All the higher ups will know you. You will get major respect because you will be seen as an industry expert and leading edge person. Even if you talk about easy stuff, or whatever you know. There are always people who won't know what you know.

If you feel you don't have the stature - you do - write and speak on what you know. A third party platform, not your own.

But, to start, it is always great to pair up with a well-known industry expert. Just contact a bunch of them and ask if they want to team up. Most won't but all you need is one to say yes, then you put this on your resume and other people will want to team up with you as you are building up your speaking and writing credentials.

I've written before that I know one guy, he speaks at any event where there are 2 or more people.

But do writing and public speaking long enough and you will get to be known to everyone. Start getting bigger and bigger venues and publications.

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The other way is to learn the power dynamics at the company when you start working there. Never become friends with the first person to introduce themselves to you. Don't clique up and get ito that backstabbing clique shit or have to hate people in this clique or that clique because your clique hates them. You should be clique-less with everyone.

You should be friendly to all, but not friends, despite that some people will say that they have made lifelong friends from work. This post is not about that, it is about self promotion and being super successful. You take time to learn who has power in any company. NOT those who seem to have power, but those who actually do. Then over time, you become an associate of those who can help you. I've done this and I will tell you what - you will shoot up the org chart if a powerful person likes you. They will tell all their powerful friends about you, too. They will test you, see what you do, will work behind the scenes, you still have to prove yourself to them that you are not a flashy flash-in-the-pan person, but can deliver results. If you do, then you will fly up the org chart to more and more responsible positions. And of course, you have to make yourself fit into their style. Are those power people laidback and relaxed? Or are they all focused, brief, fast? Adjust your style to them. If someone's a talker, be a talker, if they are no nonsense person, be no nonsense person, etc. One thing to be careful about is not to break the chain of command. If there is breaking, it has to be done by the general to you, not you to the general unless absolutely mandatory. So you have to work your way up powerful people, but only be work social, as people fall out of favor you will need to find others - you have to have a network. So always be friendly to all. Remember, a CEO of a Fortune 500 company might be friends with the parents of the mailroom clerk and go to their house and talk to the mailroom clerk who they've known since the clerk was a baby, and that mailroom clerk might say that you are a supreme asshole and everyone hates you to the CEO, and you will never go anywhere then.

Always be ready to talk to powerful players if the opportunity arises. Sometimes the opportunity will spontaneously will arise. You meet them at a restaurant or a friend in common or he or she starts a conversation in the elevator with you in the morning as you go up to your floor. It's ok to go around the chain of command in this case, as they were the ones that initiated. Get ready to speak intelligently and not mumble or hem and haw. Take your cue from him or her, but have some conversation ready to go. If you suck at small talk, then I suggest that you go onto Youtube and watch and rewatch youtube videos on how to make smalltalk, how to not be socially awkward, and watch a lot more than just one video - watch many. It is a skill that you can develop. Test out the skills you learn on non-work people and see if they work for you. Master one, then move onto another skill/technique.

Those are the two things that I know will make you super successful, for sure: 1. Public figure - speaking and writing, and

2. develop relations with powerful people in the company, not just anyone.

Write everything down.

*Credit-taking boss*

If you have a good idea, create a proposal before you tell anyone the entire idea. Hold your cards close to your vest. Don't just tell your boss and let him or her take the credit - bosses taking-credit shit. You put your name and the creation date on it. Lots of employees just like to talk about things and get the ideas flowing. With a credit-grabbing boss, you can't do this. Even with a boss that gives credit, it's still a good idea to follow the same exact procedure. Things can always get fucked up, like if your great boss get's replaced 1 month in and a new credit-taking boss takes his or her place and claims the idea as his or her own. You do NOT want others taking credit for your great ideas, no matter what.

In order to make it seem like you're NOT going behind his or her back, which is important especially with a credit-taking boss, make sure you tell your boss that you are running a few different thoughts on what some issues in your process and you want to have a quick conversation with other people. Make sure they are in other groups in the company that don't report to your boss. If your boss asks you what it is, say you are looking at a number of different thins and ideas. Be vague. If the boss insists what exactly it is, make sure you create a fake or dummy idea and tell the boss that one, and you have a few other vague ideas that haven't really taken form. This way, again, you show you're not going around their back, which control freaks and credit-takers hate. Then you go around and talk to 5 or 8 or 10 people but be vague as you can but ask some specifics that don't give your idea away. All this is just a show. You already know what you want to do. It's all a show. It's smoke and mirrors to throw off others off the scent and you can get credit without getting fucked by your boss or others. When all this preliminary bullshit show is done, then you create a proposal/report, and you put your name and the date on it and you distribute it to all the others who "helped" you, and to your boss. This way, your name and the date are definitively on the proposal and a lot of other people who "helped" and also their bosses will know about it, and that you did it, so the credit-taker can't take all the credit. He or she must at least share credit. You write the report in a way so they can't take credit, too.

So in the executive summary on the first page, you write something along the lines of:

"I noticed xyz and pdq and wondered if there was a solution. I started putting together some frameworks as shown in Appedix A (include dates, like 2/1/23). On Wednesday 2/15/23 after some thought, I asked my boss, Fred Asshole, if I could gather cross-departmental information from Jack Smack, Polly Golly, Fred Head, Bill Mill, and Percy Mercy. I appreciate Jack, Polly, Fred, Bill, and Percy's contribution."

"What I thought and discovered was: xyz pdq abc etc"

and then write the whole proposal as normal. But at the very first page, the very first paragraph, you want to say how the project came about and that you were the source. Don't bury this on the 4th or 8th page. First paragraph.

Your point number 1, while informative, is not useful.

It is not up to an employee to choose a boss. So really, the only solution to this issue is your number 2 statement -> change jobs often. This will get you away from a shitty boss, (and a good one). You have to get out from under a shitty boss. That is the only solution.

So really, your number 1 should be: Never work for a shitty boss. Transfer laterally or find a new job if you thing your shitty boss is going to be your shitty boss for more than 1 to 1.5 years.

If you can't get out from under a shitty boss because you must stay in a same location and there are no other job opportunities, or you have a job so well-paying that you will never get a high-income job like this and you have high-income requirements like private schools for your kids, then you just have to eat the shit and pretend you like it. Get your enjoyment outside of work.

I just lost mine a few months ago.

I used to just log on.

I guess at one point, I gave them my mobile phone number. I no longer have that phone or phone number.

So now, google keeps sending a security code to that phone number, which I no longer own. There's no way to put in a new mobile, but I don't want to do that anymore, anyways. Nobody gets my personal info if I so choose, and for google, I so choose - they are not getting shit from me if I can help it. They also ask for a backup code, which I am positive I never had one of those for my google account. They never asked for security questions, I always have those copied if they do.

So I'm locked out of my google account.

My new email provider only requires a password. That's what I want.

Plus, as far as email goes, Google or Yahoo or any of those commercial providers can scan through all your email. People would not put up with this if someone scanned their personal mail that came into their physical mailbox, but for some reason, it is ok if google, the largest information gathering company on the face of the earth, gathers all their data and sells it to the highest bidder. Nobody would allow this on physical mail.

So now all my email goes to tutanota, who don't do this. If they did, fine, I know how the world works, but word would get out sooner or later and they would destroy their business. I'd certainly go somewhere else and they would lose my monthly income stream. I pay for email.

Warren Buffett does deals with a handshake and one-page contracts on multi-billion dollar companies. Because he makes everything simple to close a deal.

Normally, companies spend a year to close. They quibble over tiny little things of no consequence - like a variance of .7% from one month's revenue in last March's revenue to April's revenue. Weeks of accountant's time, sales managers' time, all the owner's time.

I've screwed up deals because of lengthy contracts for small fry shit. That nobody in their right mind would accept.

I understand contracts more than most. I don't buy and sell nuclear power plants with that level of detail. My businesses are small - standard boilerplate, I know what all the clauses mean. It's not that difficult to understand basic business legal documents. Could one word or comma make a difference if I do it? Sure. As attorneys are always glad to point out. But that might be the case in 1 out of 100,000 contracts. I don't want to get a car like the President of the United States limo that costs $15 million - or whatever the fuck it costs - to keep him safe. I'm ok with a used 3 year old Toyota Camry that costs me $15,000. But am I as safe as the $15 Presidential limo? Do I give a fuck if I'm not as safe? That's a rhetorical question.

The worst was at a company in Berkeley. I was the person who kept the "mini computer" up and running - backups, coding the billing system - pretty much everything.

I had a manager. Oh my fucking god. This nasty fucker, I don't think he ever showered, always had those huge perspiration wet spots under his underarms. He stunk like shit. I'm sure he never showered. And also, his mouth - fucking green teeth, I'm sure he never brushed his teeth and his breath stank.

The guy was a super loudmouth bully, and always expounding on philosophers, rather than working. And it really was his social manner that was way worse than his hygene, if you can believe that.

I remember one time we went to a cheap diner, and he was being his loudmouth self, and as this woman was sitting at another table for a while, she finished her lunch and got up and as she passed, she said words to the effect of: "I don't know how you can stand this guy, he is so obnoxious and gross. I'd quit if I worked with him." That's how bad he was - some random woman, who didn't even have a dog in the fight, said how nasty he was after listening to him for about 10 minutes.

The guy actually gave me an actual breakdown. Panic attacks, which are NOT fun if you don't know what they are and what is going on. They are not how they sound. Instead of panic attacks, it should be named "I'm going to fucking die in the next 10 minute attacks." I eventually quit. I should have listened to that woman and quit a lot sooner, but at that time, it was quite a bit more difficult to get a job in the tech field.

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The jobs I actually liked the best were in retail, waiting on customers. I know people abhor those jobs, but I like them. I like waiting on people, and making them happy and interacting with people. My favorite job of all time was McDonalds restaurant, if you can believe that. I think I should have stayed with them and tried to move up the ladder.

I also worked a manufacturing job for a summer job after high school and before going to college. That was great. All I did was these plastic butter tubs shot down this V-shaped chute. I would wait until about 50 of them had come down the shoot, and there was a mark on the chute that indicated that there were 50 of them there and stacked. I would then take 50 and put them in a box. When the box was full, I'd tape up the box and put it on a pallet, got another box from the stack of folded cardboard boxes, open it up and tape it up, then start the process of putting a stack 50 tubs at a time into that box. 12 hours per day for 3 days, 2 days of, 12 hours per day for 2 days, 3 days off kind of gig. You would think that job was horrible, and mind-numbing. But to me, it was zen. I would just zen out for 12 hours and I liked it. It wasn't boring, to me anyways. My boss was the guy on the printing machine. He was really weird, could barely talk in complete sentences but was cool. He sat next to the machine doing nothing, until the machine broke down, which was at least twice a day. He would then fix it, and I'd wait, and then back to the boxing. But nobody fucked with you. You were just there by yourself all day, which for a mild introvert, is pure heaven.

Just keep books of the type that were in the libraries from 2010 and before.

The left wants books like "Adam and Adam Conceived a Child Because Both Men Got Pregnant Through Their Penises" and "Kill All the White Men in the World" and all that. The left wants that, and the right does not.

On the other side, the right might want to put books like "I Love the KKK" and "Men Do Construction Work, Women Don't" and all that. The right wants that, and the left does not.

So how about putting in uncontroversial books into libraries. Both sides can indoctrinate their own children however they want via the internet.

Otherwise, I get to put in my own hard-core porn books into school libraries, complete with pictures of the Cleveland Steamer and Dirty Sanchez, BD/SM, Furry role play and all that.

Is this supposed to be a good thing? Instead of living to 82 years old - pooping themselves, drooling, with no friends because they are all dead plus Alzheimers and/or dementia - I get to live another 3 years of that misery? Where do I sign up?

Huh...I was about to call bullshit on this, but specifically only for the C suite executives.

Then, in contradiction to all known online posting habits of most commenters, I decided to check my assumptions and go to a site that lists all the Fortune 500 companies and check the pictures of Fortune 500 leadership. I know, pretty bizarre, right? Checking to see one is right in their assumptions before inflicting their own opinions on everyone else.

My conclusion - executives, both board of directors and management, were all above average looking. Not one was a supermodel level, of course. But almost all were above average looking. But no way below average super nasty looking snaggle-tooth acne pockmarked people with a lazy eye looking in the opposite direction. No fat people at all. Of course, There were a few slightly below average looking people, but that is not the norm. There was one group of executives at one company that all of them were below average, but that was an anomoly.

So yes, get that plastic surgery. Get good haircuts. Stay in good physical shape.

Meh, not to worry. I'm 100% positive that there are plenty of moles in every area of our DIE defense industry.

Have rules and regulations in the bylaws as to salary and that you don't want leadership elite caste that inevitably takes power and lives in luxury while salaries get depressed across the board in the name of equality.

???? I don't get what you're asking.

Start a union. Ask people to join. Don't tell the companies who joins. Wait until you have a critical mass. Then do stuff.

Sure. Of course.

But what they found in restaurants that had the no-tip policy is that all of their really great staff found better paying jobs easily, and the shitty employees, or new employees, would be the ones that stayed. And the new employees would leave as soon as they were trained up, so all that was left at the no-tip restaurants were the shittiest of the shitty employees. This is what I read from a study on this exact situation of no-tip restaurants and the effect it had.

That person's main point is still true. The main point is that a better waiter/waitress makes more money in the same shift, even if they hypothetically waited on the exact same people.

There is skill and talent involved. We have all had shitty waitstaff wait on us, and great people, too. The great people get a better tip, even if they are uglier, or walk with a limp and have a hunch back like Quisimoto. In another post, I listed dozens of ways that one staff person can make more than another by using different techniques.

Everyone carries a mobile with them. We didn't use to and had to figure it out. But it is so simple. All you have to do is take 10%, then take 1/2 of that and add them together.

So if a meal is $48.75, then 10% is $4.88. Round it up to $5. Half of $5 is $2.50. $5 plus $2.50 is $7.50 tip. then add that onto the total of the $48.75 but I round the $7.50 up to $8 and so $48.75 and $8 is $56.75. Super easy to do in one's head in less than 30 seconds.

If lunch is $38.64, then 10% is $3.86. Round it up to $4. Half of $4 is $2, so $4 + $2 is $6 tip. Total is $38.64 + $6 or $44.64. Thirty seconds to calculate it.

You do rounding to make it easy - you don't do all the decimal points exactly, that sucks to do it that way. Rounding is close enough, and you round up.

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Some waitstaff are better than others. They are more social. They develop regulars. That's where the real money is made. You get regulars. There are other tricks, too. Not all of them work every time for every person, but it is a statistics game.

Like if a waitress wears a flower in her hair, can make up to 17% more tips. Some people know how to upsell for a higher total bill and make more tips because of the percentage. If you draw a smily face on the bill, you will get a bigger tip. Studies have shown if you can entertain people when appropriate (unobrusively - you have to guage the situation), that can increase tips by 7%. If you have regulars, give them freebies - fucking EVERYONE loves a freebie. A study showed that if you give a weather forecast on the bill, the tip is an average of 22.2% vs 18% if they didn't - so when giving the bill you write "The weather is supposed to be great tomorrow, have a great day!" If you use your customer's name, you will get a bigger tip. Giving a gift increases tips - even giving a candy cane during christmas or candy corn during halloween, etc. Other ways: Squat down to talk to customers, smile a lot, write "thank you" on the bill. Read your customers. Learn what your boss wants so you get the better shifts more often. Get better customers and get them to come back to you and ask for you. Basically create an environment that predisposes customers to be generous.

Did this answer your question about why some make better tips?

>Lastly, I personally find tipping and therefore your slightly aggressive defense of it, kinda gross?

That's ok. None of us can please everyone. I'm positive someone finds things that you think or want as gross, and I don't mean that in a bad way. I very much am strongly supporting tipping, I think it is great.

>It's a power-trip at the end of the day to control someone else's actions with your money. Sure, that's life, but with tipping it's so blunt.

Eh. It's blunt everywhere. We all knuckle under to our stupid bosses we've all had in life because of money. And the thing is, that multiple studies have been made for waitstaff and they all WANT to be controlled if they make more money. Wait staff in the USA love tips, and they love the thought that if they give great service, that their tips can be larger - it gives them motivation. This is not me saying this, it's what the wait staff wants. They love it. Not every single waiter/waitress. People who suck at interpersonal communication probably hate it, of course. That would be logical. But it is a personal job, so they should find another job, quite frankly. And in general, customers don't look at it as a power trip, at all. Some do, but the vast majority do not. I don't. I'm not imperious, snapping my fingers for service, and ordering people around. That is just bad manners and an ill-mannered person who would do this even if there was no tipping. Because that is how people are.

In a case like this, you should bring cash with you anyways. It is a different situation than going to a restaurant. When you travel one should always have cash, even if one normally doesn't. It's common sense.

There are actual rational reasons, though. You, and even most Americans, don't know what they are, is all.

Random sales tax on stuff for example is separate. This is not the fault of the business. The way USA government works is that sales tax is set by the county. There are 3,142 counties and county equivalents. Each charging their own tax amount.

Let's say you are a big store like Target with stores across the USA. They want to charge $25 for a pair of shoes. How do they advertise? They take out advertising all across the USA, and charge $25 for the shoes. Well, how do you put in the correct amount on the newspaper or website advertisement? You put it in the newspaper for $27.50 because one county charges 10% sales tax. But the next county over has a 7% sales tax. The correct price is $26.75. But that newspaper is delivered into multiple counties, in the same exact newspaper, so there is no possible way for target to put the correct price. It's literally impossible. So what they do is say the shoes are $25, and you pay the difference to the county as an extra. Because the business can do fuck all about it. In European countries, they probably have the same exact sales tax everywhere, so it is ok to do it that way. But Target isn't going to get the entire USA to change the tax code of 3,142 different tax jurisdictions. Good luck on that one.

For tipping, you don't have to carry cash at all. I never do. They have an extra line on the receipt to add the tip. I just round it and don't do it exactly, because it is easier and faster that way.

You want me to ask for what I want? Ok. I want to tell you the price of the meal and you pay a 15% tip. That is what I want. And I don't want anyone whining about it. If one wants to whine, just stay at home and cook a home-cooked meal. Everyone wins.

And, as I stated elsewhere, it is usually the people that are most vocal against tips that are the most pain in the butt customers anyways; even if there were not tips, they would still be the worst customers. Maybe not you, but most like that always have something more to complain about.

Nah. This is like it is in political discussions or online discussions, but in real life, in real time, it is not this way.

You want to use standard and customary forms of communcation, though. You can be a little friendlier, or a little more formal, but it's never good to stray too far if meeting or talking to a person the first time.

However, if you get a bead on the person and their personality, you can adjust your style to theirs is best.