There are a lot of hobbies you can get into that can be started with little or not cost, or with equipment/materials you already own.

Figure out what interests you and see what can be done inexpensively.

With a phone or computer, there’s writing, music, programming, learning new skills, Wikipedia, Pinterest, et al. Maybe take your phone and start photographing stuff in your area that interests you.

Find someone who has experience in an area you’re interested in. People tend to like to talk about their hobbies and interests and they can tell you how easy or difficult it is to get started. They might even be able to help you get started.

Maybe find a volunteer opportunity that helps pad your resume. Like animals? Volunteer at a local shelter.

There are a bunch of job certifications you can train for online that can also help build your resume.

Nice try, HR.

Sounds like the Mechanical Turk which was run by chess players moving the “automaton.”

So much of the wow factor of new technologies is just marketing hyperbole.

Taking someone’s lead sounds like a British saying indicating the opposite of following someone’s lead. It sounds like you’re taking someone’s leash in your hands and directing them where to go.

Humans can’t write bug-free code, it’s beyond us.

Hey, my CS professor said my Hello World was perfect!

Probably getting sued out of existence for violating patents and breaking DRM.

It’s still great. No problems so far. I have fewer issues with it at home than I do with some of the Prusas I use at work.

It’s been a long while since I read it, but the one thing I remember is the idea that you should let people talk about themselves and they’ll like you for it.

I’m disappointed that no one responded to you with YTA or NTA.

Aliquando et insanire iucundum est.

• Cynical the Younger

The easiest answer is that the plot and themes required it. The same way horror movie victims do stupid things like splitting up or checking on noises in a dark basement. It’s necessary to advance the plot or maintain the status quo of the character relationships. Mulder needed a foil to his eagerness to embrace aliens and conspiracies as the explanation.

A handheld time machine

The Loner’s Unaffiliated Disassociation.

Motto: “No members allowed.”

Concision seems like it should be a word for that which is made concise rather than the brevity itself. An incision is the cut made by incising.

Find a friend who you can trust to be honest with you to second guess yourself with—preferably someone with a lot of emotional intelligence and self-awareness.

I’m not seeing an image.

No, I like action games. I’m just saying there’s a point at which increased difficulty doesn’t contribute positively to the experience for me. I don’t mind a learning curve. I don’t mind realizing I’ve underestimated the difficulty of a particular game mechanic or boss or level. I’ll play at normal difficulty or hard, depending on the game. But if the essential game mechanic is just being really hard and unforgiving, it’s not a game to me anymore. It’s just a frustration engine and a time sink at that point.

I spent my youth playing the same Nintendo and Super Nintendo game levels over and over again, like notoriously difficult Battletoads levels, and the satisfaction of finally getting it after fifty tries just comes in increasingly diminishing returns. I guess I like games that make me think more rather than just react faster or memorize boss behavior formulas.

Agreed. The whole thing was just a waste. It felt like they were trying to create a desperate situation similar to the Empire Strikes Back, but to do so they made the Resistance have the worst planning and resources and strategy. They made the plucky heroes stupid in order to make the stakes higher. It only built on the unbelievability of the setup for TFA that after the fall of the Empire, the New Republic would just give up any memory of having very recently recovered from galactic fascism and immediately become weak and useless.

The slow speed chase and multiple ships just getting picked off felt like a horror movie where characters are getting picked off by the serial killer over the course of a few hours instead of an adventure movie you want to rewatch.

It took me two attempts to get through Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon even though it was thematically up my alley. He includes so many tangents and explanations that it can be tedious at times, however interesting some of them might be. I’d almost prefer footnotes to the longer tangents so I could just get into them optionally if I choose.

I enjoyed Snow Crash, but I think he’s better at world building than following a plot to a satisfying ending. It seems a common criticism that some of his books end a bit abruptly without enough investment in the conclusion, especially in contrast to the significant detail he puts in to the world building.

This is the contradiction for my taste. I like the dark themes and some of the aesthetics, but not the masochistic game play. I play as much for the narrative or even moreso than the gameplay, so games that make the player get better rather than the character get better are just frustrating because they’re punishing me for not spending more time on the least interesting aspect.

Spending 20 more attempts before I defeat a boss doesn’t give me a greater sense of accomplishment, but rather a greater sense of wasted time when I could have been enjoying interesting details of the narrative or the aesthetics.