Join some Whatsapp group that piques your interest and meet with them IRL. I wouldn’t have thought that drinking beer and shooting the shit with total strangers could be so much fun, but here we are.

John Lennon at home:

Geez, that reminds me of a former colleague that, when asked for “the numbers,” would just send screenshots of tables in the ERP system instead of exporting them to a spreadsheet. What’s even worse, usually a lot of values were plain wrong, on one occasion more than half of them.

And let’s not forget politics. When you’re golf buddies with the right politicians, winning those extremely lucrative public tenders will become a cakewalk.

Some people are in for a rude awakening if they think that the slight nuisance of “being shown targeted ads” is the biggest issue with dragnet data collection.

That, and internet in the late 90s started to get really fast. Some blokes sat in their rooms for days on end, downloading music or movies, as there were no laws against it yet. Or at least they were not enforced. In other words, those were the days when average Joe could still be one step ahead of The Man. You know, before he turned against us with a vengeance, everywhere, 24/7.

Strange, just for the last few days, I’ve been thinking just what a big cultural turning point 2005 seemed to be. From then on, everything started to circle the drain, and I put the blame on globalization and the advent of large-scale social media. Which might have left an imprint on product design and fashion.
And, as I wrote earlier in a different thread, the shift from 1994 to 1995 was the biggest one I’ve witnessed, and it was very visible in public spaces. Audible as well: It went from Metallica and ZZ Top as supermarket background music (imagine this!) to “Easy Listening” or whatever.

Yeah, it feels quite petulant and deconstructive at times.
But a lot of what you wrote is just a feature of any small online community. Then you end up with these bitter types who, if you rubbed them slightly the wrong way, get up at 6 a.m., downvote everything you ever wrote and report as many of your contributions as they can get away with.
I mean, downvotes and upvotes could be capped at -1 and +5, respectively, like on /. which has been going strong for more than 20 years with this concept, or there could be enforcement of some sort of netiquette, but that would put additional strain on the mods.

I feel you…

🎶 I can’t seem to face up to the facts
I’m tense and nervous and I can’t relax
I can’t sleep 'cause my bed’s on fire
Don’t touch me, I’m a real live wire 🎶

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A sixpack a day keeps the anal away.

Blame it on the rain.

Disinfotainment at its best.

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Reminds me of a dealership near me which actually had “The honest used-car salesman!” as their slogan.

Amazing how someone can utter a 100% fascist idea like this in public and not immediately get egged.

So kind of like Werner Herzog then, who once stated that he never, ever dreams. But he keeps having visions with his eyes wide open, in broad daylight, all the time. He describes them in his terrific book “Of Walking in Ice.”

In my last company, everybody could easily obtain “manager” status… because that was just the title for everyone who was salaried. Which didn’t necessarily mean more money. In fact, usually not. It certainly meant more overtime… a lot more.

Could you please post a link to “real life”? Thank you. I just hope it’s not invitation-only.