Zink

And besides, the air filters at your kids’ private academy are better than the hospitals the poors use, never mind the public schools!

Yeah, unfortunately I think that both corporations and consumers have shown that they prefer the cheap option rather than whatever not-as-cheap options might offer in terms of quality, sustainability, environmental protection, lack of child slavery... you know, luxuries like that.

And that is speaking in general, mass-market terms of course. There are often options for those who care about the things I jokingly referred to as luxuries. But when something like that is niche instead of a widespread basic expectation, it gets priced as a luxury. Ugh.

What a nicely packaged little subthread to come across while decompressing after a super busy day, lol!

I understand your crisis, but I would not hold your career choice against you for a second, just like I wouldn’t for engineers still refining piston engines for automobiles.

People are going to use them for a long time, so if your niche is making that more efficient then it’s worthwhile.

True, but they DO still like denying fun to themselves and their same-race underlings as well.

Interesting. Maybe that supports my guess.

It’s not without precedent though. I remember seeing NT references for a long time from win2k on.

I thought they were supposed to do the whole "last version of Windows that will be updated forever" with Windows 10, and of course abandoned that some time ago.

My gut feeling is that their product management marketing folks came to the conclusion that Windows as a subscription was not going to work for the consumer market where the OS is something that's just part of the device you buy. And in discussions with system OEMs they made the decision that consumers like it when the version number goes up, so increasing that windows number every several years will move systems.

Is that Steve Jobs with a Butthead mouth? Beautiful.

and oftentimes they don't admit why they really have a problem with the game directly

I think in many cases they aren’t even admitting it to themselves. Self-delusion is kind of a recurring theme with them.

The problem is that so many of us INSIDE the US still sleep like that, especially the ones who match homer’s kind of “dopey white middle aged boomer dad who raised a family on a single factory job” demographic.

I match some of those demographics, like the dopey white middle aged USAmerican dad raising a family with his one income. I don’t match him in other areas because I am an over-educated tech worker living in an old cheap blue collar neighborhood to make it happen in current day.

I am extremely unhappy and embarrassed about just about every single thing that has my country is in the news, to say the least. It makes me sad and worried for the entire world. Giving a shit about other people while evil morons are grabbing power will do that to you.

But for people who look like me and don’t follow what’s going on in the world or care about other people? My day to day real life in my local physical environment is comfortable and privileged as hell, and so is a lot of theirs.

Combine that with our culture where a “successful” life is constant stress over the rat race and keeping up with the Joneses, so that you are worried about making the payments on your luxury SUV rather than whether your government is destroying people you don’t know while funneling your resources to people who already have 1000x more than you.

“you’re responsible for your own happiness” can be a true thing even if you are loving and supportive. It doesn’t have to be a justification for coldly distancing yourself unless that’s already what you want to do for some reason(could be your own suffering, not necessarily a conscious choice).

I’m in a similar situation now. I am in a pretty good place after having a very shitty handful of years 2019-2024. My wife is having some of the same issues now, and when I recognize the similarities it only makes me show her more grace and understanding. But then I am obligated to be honest about what I learned over the years, even if my solutions and techniques might not end up exactly being hers.

And the fact is that happiness, fulfillment, contentment, peace with the universe, and all that stuff originates from somewhere deep within. It’s along the same lines as the saying that money can’t buy happiness.

Yeah, and I think that is tied to a subconscious need for good things to be permanent.

I think that truly internalizing the temporary nature of literally everything is an important part of getting to the mindset you’re talking about.