> I still don't know why all the clothing suddenly developed that smell - I went my whole life without needing to do anything special to my athletic clothes until then.

It's the takeover of synthetic fibers (i.e., plastic) for everything, but especially anything athletic. Damn near everything is 100% synthetic, not even a cotton or wool blend anymore. From the high end to the low end, all synthetic.

I experience the same thing with any synthetic athletic clothes. They retain so much stink and it's so difficult to get out. And even using sanitizers the fix is very temporary and the stink comes back quickly.

I've switched to wool shirts for running and they do not have this problem. Unfortunately they are harder to find and more expensive, but so worth it for both feel while wearing and not retaining stink.

The concept of "athletic clothes" implies it is a synthetic material inherently. If you wanted a cotton athletic shirt, that's just a cotton shirt of which everyone has many. The thing that makes it 'athletic' is the synthetic material.

Finding 100% cotton clothes is not very difficult

Look up how the wool in your wool shirts is prepared. It is likely coated in plastic...

That's what the https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/backdoor-roth-ira.asp is for, assuming you don't have any existing traditional IRA balances

You can also roll your traditional IRA into an employers 401k (if the plan allows this) to zero out your traditional IRA balance.

They are largely congressional jobs programs, not traditional business investments

In that, I agree with you. Tbh it sounds almost socialist: The government pays a lot of money to employ lots of workers in really good jobs, with only a pretty modest amount of overhead (money earned by the investors of the contractors).

And then that stimulates the economy further as those people all spend that money, and the government gets a bunch of bombs and fighter jets out of the deal.

Introvert doesn't mean one doesn't enjoy socializing, just that one needs quiet down time to recharge from it. Extroverts tend to be energized by socialization. It's also not always so cleanly binary, either.

I really hate that introversion gets conflated with social anxiety or misanthropy on the internet.

well, and I dislike that people feel the need to desperately label themselves with some affliction. At some point you're just pretty close to the center of the bell curve.

I'm not sure if you're talking about me self-labeling myself as "introvert" earlier, or specifically about the comment you replied to and the "social anxiety or misanthropy" parts, but I don't see either "extrovert" or "introvert" as any sort of afflictions, more like preferences.

I'd agree "hate" is a strong word and maybe a bit exaggerated, I hope at least.

1:1s don't have to be strictly manager:report

I'm a staff eng and have 1:1s with other managers I don't report to and my peer staff/principle engs in other reporting chains and they are some of the most valuable meetings I have to keep connected with what other teams and the rest of the organization is doing, what's going well, what they might need from me, pain points, initiatives, etc. And of course just to build and maintain rapport across the org, which absolutely pays dividends.

I do these less frequently than with my direct manager, but still on a regular cadence, typically once a month or every other month.

$499 2007 dollars when the first iPhone launched is about $820 in 2026 dollars

The basic iPhone 17 starts at $799

The 17e is only $599

If anything the iPhone is getting cheaper in real terms, not more expensive

of course you're right, but phones have been getting more expensive.

They have also become more capable and it seems having a more capable phone has really benefited people.

also: by your numbers that means $1,999 in 2026 would have been $3200 in 2007.

Sounds very similar to The Heroes Journey, which was a heavily modified EverQuest emulation server that got destroyed in court by Daybreak Games, the current owners/operators of EQ.

THJ was sort of like arcade mode EQ and became wildly popular (relatively, for such an old game) and started making real money off donations and in-game transactions. They likely flew too close to the sun by making money off it, but it demonstrates that there is real creative opportunity with these old IPs if only given the chance. See also the rise of classic and progression servers for the likes of EQ & WoW, which also started as a community emu effort but have now been officially launched and monetized by the IP owners.

And now Daybreak is launching their own THJ-alike but without any of the community goodwill so we'll see how that goes.

Which is short for "How do you do?"

Good point! I guess my principles only extend so far.

You've never had a manager or product person take estimates, even clearly communicated as low confidence or rife with unknowns, as gospel truth? Lucky you.

Engineer: “It will take me two days [of work].” Sales:”We will have your fix ready in three calendar days [today + 2].”

Actual work that week gives employee 3 hours of non-meeting time, each daily meeting adds 0.5 hours of high-urgency administrative work. Friday’s we have a mandatory all-hands town halls…

Repeat that cycle for every customer facing issue, every demo facing issue, and internal political issue and you quickly drive deep frustrations and back talking.

I think there’s a fundamental truth: no one in their right minds, not even motivated engineers, actually hears anything but calendar when getting “days” estimates. It’s a terrible misrepresentation almost all the time, and engineers do a disservice when they yield to pressure to deliver them outside the broader planning process.

Project schedules should be the only place that time commitments come from, since they’re informed with necessary resource availability.

The majority of Americans are W2 wage earners that take the standard deduction.