wildncrazyguy138

Conflicted. I’ll give you my top 4 considerations.

• Pro 1: The reason a lot of these folks become billionaires is because they are able to sell an idea and execute on it. I think that’s admirable. I think it’s aspirational. I think that is part of the human condition.
• Pro 2: Additionally, they’re billionaires because society made them billionaires. Often, they founded a company (or got in on the ground floor), then issued stock to investors. More and more investor’s piled on. It’s a bit like winning the lottery, only that you (the aspirational billionaire) have some effect in the outcome. Again, I think this is part of the human condition. Civilizations, tribes, companies, whatever you call them, for some bizarre reason that I personally don’t quite grasp, prefer to have a leader, or at least will defer to one.
• Con 1: Many people can be millionaires. It’s not easy, but with the right vision, gumption, financial know-how, time and a bit of luck, someone pursuing this effort can do so. But, it takes a certain kind of person to be a 100+ millionaire or even billionaire. I think we have enough historical evidence of the type I’m describing - greedy, predatory, manipulative, aggressive, sociopathic. These traits can flourish in business, but I don’t think that these are traits that we should encourage in society as a whole. It gives me some gratitude that, for every 1 megalomaniacal billionaire in the world, there were 1000s of lookalikes who flailed.
• Con 2: Rent-seeking behavior and loot dragons. Nothing pisses me off more than a self-entitled dumbass whose entire being is resting on the laurels of a family legacy. I think once the great person’s first generation passes, that most of their remaining horde should be returned for the public good. While I do think a certain amount should be endowed to the next generation so that they are equipped to pursue their own marvel, I do think society resources made these people and society should be able to take them back.

Final Fantasy 1 - It wasn’t the first RPG, but it pretty much defined the series. It still has tons of playability, I revisit it more or less every 5 years. I still have yet to beat Warmech, and only have encountered him a handful of times.

But most of all, it’s the game that saved Squaresoft. If it had failed, we would have missed out on so many great games, including ones also mentioned in this post.

Runners up have to be Donkey Kong, which brought us Mario, which in turn restored vitality into the at home console game industry, and Double Dragon, which brought us PVP and Co-op combat.

Honorable mention would have to be that Simpsons arcade game where Marge can fight with the vacuum cleaner and TMNT 2 - Two classic, very difficult, drain your change jar games. I’d throw Mega man 2 into that mix as well.

I used it the other day to redact names from a spreadsheet. It got 90% of them, saving me about 90 minutes of work. It has helped clean up anomalies in databases (typos, inconsistencies in standardized data sets, capitalization errors, etc). It also helped me spruce up our RFP templates by adding definitions for standard terminology in our industry (which I revised where needed, but it helped to have a foundation to build from).

As mentioned in a different post, I use it for DND storylines, poems, silly work jokes and prompts to help make up bed time stories.

My wife uses it to help proofread her papers and make recommendations on how to improve them.

I use it more often now than google search. If it’s a topic important enough that I want to verify, then I’ll do a deeper dive into articles or Wikipedia, which is exactly what I did before AI.

So yea, it’s like the personal assistant that I otherwise didn’t have.

True story. His brother inspected my house. Very very thorough and very very serious guy, which I suppose is what you want in a home inspector.

Suffice to say, Jim took all of the funny gene in that family.

• Throat coat for when I’m sick
• Kenya Black or Irish Breakfast with full fat oat milk in the mornings
• Vanilla Spiced chai with a cinnamon stick, cardamom pods and star anise during the holidays
• Russian orange tea on a crisp winter’s day

Growing up in the south, at some point in my 20s I realized I just didn’t really enjoy overly sugared black tea. And then I discovered a whole new world. It’s been a wonderful journey.

The whole “Today I Found Out” universe of channels.

Teaches you history, keeps you current on current events (Warfronts is particularly good for geopolitics as it relates to wars going on). Places takes you through interesting places all around the world. Mega projects is like the old Mega project show on the history channel. Astro graphics takes you into space. Brain Blaze is a huge silly tangent.

The ROC, Tibet, India and Mongolia at a minimum would like to have a word.

And below was my prompt, took me appx 5 minutes to write from my phone. I like that the AI thought that Elias would recall secret passages from his youth, which I’m thinking could help the adventures bypass some of the guard. I definitely would want to workshop that highwaymen twist, I mean what kind of party would be willing to return a relic of shadows back when they perceive a ruler as being corrupt? It needs something a bit more convincing.

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Provide me a framework for a DND campaign that will contain the following story arcs. A lord of a small fiefdom seeks a group of traveling adventures to return a relic (you choose the relic, it must have magical powers) that was stolen from him by a group of highwaymen. The story must include a twist about the highwaymen. When returned, the lord becomes corrupted and throws the party in a far off dungeon. The adventures must work their way back to the lord and seek their revenge, with the assistance of a self exiled hermit who formerly knew the lord in his youth that they encounter along the way. If the hermit dies, the party loses insight into the lord’s intentions and it makes it much more challenging to win the campaign.

For those interested, I just asked it to generate a campaign with a quick prompt and this is what it spit out. Not perfect, but a good basis to build from:

Campaign Framework: The Relic of Shadows Introduction: The Call to Adventure Setting: The campaign begins in the small, picturesque fiefdom of Ravenwood, ruled by the benevolent Lord Alaric. Known for his wisdom and kindness, Lord Alaric’s peace is shattered when a relic of immense power, the Amulet of Shadows, is stolen by a band of notorious highwaymen. Hook: Lord Alaric seeks the help of the adventurers, promising wealth and favor in return for the retrieval of the Amulet of Shadows. The relic is said to possess the ability to manipulate shadows, providing its bearer with unparalleled stealth and the power to traverse through the Shadow Realm. Act 1: The Journey Begins Initial Quest: The adventurers set off to track down the highwaymen, following clues and engaging in minor skirmishes along the way. They learn that the highwaymen are more than simple thieves—they are a fragmented faction of former soldiers who turned to banditry after being betrayed by a corrupt noble. Twist: Upon confronting the highwaymen, the adventurers discover that Lord Alaric had once wronged them in his past. The highwaymen had stolen the Amulet of Shadows not out of greed, but to prevent Alaric from using its dark powers. They reveal that Alaric’s benevolent facade hides his darker ambitions. Act 2: The Corrupted Lord Return and Betrayal: Despite the highwaymen’s revelations, the adventurers decide to return the Amulet of Shadows to Lord Alaric, hoping to resolve the situation peacefully. However, upon returning the relic, Lord Alaric’s true nature is revealed. Corrupted by the power of the amulet, he becomes malevolent and orders the adventurers imprisoned in a distant, forgotten dungeon. Dungeon Escape: The adventurers must navigate the treacherous dungeon, facing traps, monsters, and puzzles. During their imprisonment, they encounter an exiled hermit named Elias, a former friend of Lord Alaric who was cast out due to discovering the lord’s dark ambitions. Act 3: The Path of Vengeance The Hermit’s Guidance: Elias offers to guide the adventurers back to Ravenwood and reveals crucial insights into Lord Alaric’s plans. He explains that Alaric seeks to use the Amulet of Shadows to control the Shadow Realm and extend his dominion. Elias knows secret paths and hidden truths that can aid the adventurers. Critical Choice: The adventurers must protect Elias throughout their journey. If Elias perishes, they lose his valuable knowledge, making their mission significantly harder. Without Elias, they will face additional challenges and must uncover Alaric’s weaknesses through other means. Act 4: The Final Confrontation Return to Ravenwood: The adventurers, now armed with the knowledge provided by Elias (or through their own investigations if Elias is lost), must confront Lord Alaric. They rally allies, face Alaric’s corrupted forces, and uncover the hidden vulnerabilities in Alaric’s plans. Climactic Battle: The campaign culminates in an epic showdown with Lord Alaric in his fortified castle. The adventurers must disable the Amulet of Shadows, overcome Alaric’s dark magic, and ultimately restore peace to Ravenwood. Resolution Victory or Defeat: Depending on the adventurers’ actions, they may emerge victorious, freeing Ravenwood from Alaric’s tyrannical grasp, or they might succumb to the shadows, leaving the fiefdom to its dark fate. Their choices throughout the campaign will determine the final outcome and the legacy they leave behind. Feel free to add or adjust details to fit your players’ preferences and playstyle! This framework should give you a solid foundation for a thrilling and complex campaign. Happy adventuring! 🐉⚔️

I’ve used it to fill in the gaps for DND storyline. I’ll give it a prompt and a couple of story arcs then I’ll tell it to write in a certain style, say a cowardly king or dogmatic paladin. From there it will spit out a story. If I don’t like certain affects, I’ll tell it to rewrite a section with some other detail in mind. It does a fantastic job and saves me some of the guesswork.

I buy gift cards for the discounts. Usually you can get a gift card from anywhere between 3% and 20% off. Over the last 5 years, this has saved me $1000s on house renovations alone.

Coincidentally, this very week, I accidentally texted my neighbor a vulgar comment about TSA patting down my balls that was meant for the Mrs.

Unsend did not work 🙄😙🤮

I got a little taste of what Truman must’ve felt like when he realized everyone got to watch his awkward years.

I don’t know about y’all, but I’d prefer not to win a Darwin Award.

I’m more a visual person, so let me show you some graphs: Famine rates are down: https://ourworldindata.org/images/published/Famine-death-rate-since-1860s-revised_850.png

We can do so much more with our computing resources - Note, logarithmic scale: https://www.singularity.com/images/charts/MicroprocessorClockSpeed.jpg

Poverty is down: https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/uploads/chorus_asset/file/2545610/Screen_Shot_2014-12-12_at_10.34.38_AM.0.png?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0,0,100,100

Billions of people live in a democracy, before 1850 almost none did: https://bigthink.com/the-present/democratic-rights/

Get a Dietician and physical trainer. Use this opportunity to get yourself into healthy shape and never look back. I did something years ago and had no clue just how bad I was actually feeling before the improvement. Both physically and mentally. We are not designed to sit at desks all day.

Do your feet crack sometimes? Consider testing for athletes foot.

Blood, STD and Cancer screenings, as many as they’ll give you. Hell, depending how old you are, maybe a colonoscopy.

Sleep study. MRI, ECG, EKG. Allergy test. Dermatology/mole screening.

IQ test, find out your best skills and then learn how to use them to your advantage.

DNA testing, if you really want to know some things you may be perceptive to…though personally i don’t know if I would want to know if Huntingtons is in my future.

How does this square with the whole libertarian bend?

Not going to go into details due to confidentiality, but I recently was involved in an initiative to utilize AI to scan education databases and identify students who may be at risk of dropping out, with the goal of having an early safety net for these folks. And also raising the schools retention rates, thus better outcomes overall.

So yes, AI can absolutely be used for good.

Yea but this is grade A in the same way that school lunch ketchup is grade A.

Starting a daily productivity log. It started as a google form but has morphed into a larger spreadsheet. It contains:

• Something I completed today
• something I worked on today
• one thing I couldn’t do and why
• a new idea I had today
• something I did for physical activity
• something I learned today

Each row is a day. It also includes a section for bucket list and yearly goals and whether I achieved them.

I don’t fill it out every day and I don’t fill out every field each day either, but I do try to not get more than 10 days behind.

It gives me a sense of purpose. It helps me remember what I’ve done, so days don’t just slip through my fingers. It also, I think, shows how I’ve grown a bit as a person.

It became really special when I was able to bring it out during my wedding vows. I wrote down on paper many of the things my SO and I did on our adventures and got to share them with our friends and family.

I have a tab for each of the last 15 years.

So then they’ll move here, not such a bad deal.

But then, who makes sure that ActivityPub doesn’t sell out?