Different parts of NY state are all very different. Even different neighborhoods within Brooklyn can be very different costs and experiences. I live here but would not willingly choose to live in the suburbs around the city.

In the city, you’re likely not going to find rent under $1000/month. Make a budget spreadsheet. You can cut some corners - my phone bill is $20/month, and I eat a lot of rice and beans to keep my food budget low - but some stuff is just expensive.

You’ll probably need room mates.

Look for colleges first, if that’s a goal. Some have housing assistance.

Capitalism has always sounded great in theory,

I dunno, “People who don’t do the work get rich” sounds kind of shitty.

People use the word “capitalism” to mean different things.

If you ask someone “Should someone who doesn’t do any work get money from people who do?”, a lot of people would say no. And they’d probably think you’re talking about welfare or communism. But that’s capitalism. The guy who “owns” the company can sit at home and watch netflix while all his office workers make stuff, and he keeps the profits. If you frame it right, you can get people to agree with you or suffer some cognitive dissonance.

But none of that is what some people are thinking of when they think capitalism. They think “free markets” and “competition”. They often don’t really think about how that trends towards monopolies or cartels. Either because of magic, or “the government will prevent monopolies.” But not too much regulation. There’s got to be a few decades of suffering before an intervention, typically.

There’s also a lot of binary thinking. Either capitalism, or total state ownership and oppression.

I think most people are so disorganized in their thinking, they can’t “prompt” well. There’s a lot of unclarified assumptions and leaps in how many people communicate

This one maybe ? https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-men-who-killed-google/

Retire. Don’t like my job. Tech is circling the drain.

Other people posted some details but essentially if you’re not an idiot you can park that in safe investments and live a happy life.

I get so frustrated when I read about people who like win a few million, blow it on like stupid cars and houses, and end up poor again. Just don’t do that.

If there are desperate unhappy people it will probably not go well. Our society produces a lot of desperate, unhappy, people.

These people are horrible and I would celebrate their fall.

I don’t think “friends” works well as a binary yes/no. There are many different kinds of friends, Some people are like cacti and only need to be watered once a year. Other people are like… I’m not a gardener, but some other kind of plant that needs frequent watering. Some are weeds that will take over your entire home. This metaphor got away from me a little.

Personally, I follow a strategy of “when you have the energy, demonstrate the behavior you want to see.” So if you have the juice to handle an unsatisfying outcome, reach out to them like you’d want to be reached out to. Invite them to a party. Send them a funny meme. Whatever. They might flake. They might not respond. But you only do this when you can handle that disappointment. If someone’s been real flakey and you just can’t deal with it, you don’t have to go the extra mile for them.

I already felt pretty good about not eating meat*. I think this would have have been a big motivator if I wasn’t already on board

*Ok, I’m kind of a half assed vegetarian. I generally don’t buy meat but if I’m at like a dinner someone else planned I might have some they cooked. It’s easier than going all the way to 100%, and has reduced my meat consumption by like 95%.

Oh god concerts are so stupid right now. Can’t see anything because there’s always some idiot holding a phone up in front of your face.

I get annoyed when people hold the phone up high during the show. If you hold it in front of your face, no one behind you can see it. Don’t block people’s view.

No. Don’t feel strongly about hats. Wouldn’t want to live someplace where wearing a hat is expected. I’m a band T-shirt and jeans kind of guy though.

Only slime balls, children, and cowards refuse to admit fault.

There was a joke at Bush’s expense, I believe, that was like “This man believes the same thing Wednesday as he did on Monday, no matter what happened on Tuesday.” Don’t be like that.

I will almost never click a video unless it’s a natively visual thing. Like, a music video, a clip of a movie, whatever.

If it’s like “you should learn more about the My Lai massacre - here’s a great video” I’m just going to roll my eyes. Use your words. Embedded media is probably fine. Like an article with illustrations or video supplements. I’d much rather just read like a wikipedia article like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Lai_massacre

Yeah. I wouldn’t bring it up as a non sequitur but it’s pretty important.

We’re a stupid country rules by assholes and morons.

You just know if someone tried to make a serious push for it, all the fox news types would go into a frenzy. It’d be an easy way to whip up their idiot base.

Conservatism is entirely about the laws applying differently to different people. The king is special. The nobles are a little less special. The peasants are trash. The slaves are worse. That’s the conservative world. Hierarchy. So of course they don’t want to apply rules to their chief.

They are worse than children.

I don’t do any banking via an app. It’s only from my desktop, never my phone. If they required an app, I’d change banks.

If you’re ever wondering why something in the US is bad, it’s almost always racism. Sometimes it’s corporate profits.

I accept that your job likely has different cadences than software development, in addition to personal preference.

Most software engineers I’ve talked to don’t like being interrupted in the middle of some deep thought. Especially if it means shelving current work to check out something else