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Posted
7 hours ago, Horn Under a Bad Sign said:

I go to Costco. I want to renew my membership. I haven't been a member for a few years because I lived in a Costco-free zone but now there is Costco. I just want the basic membership.  That's all I want. I don't want to be upsold, I don't want the super deluxe special extra, I just want the basic membership. They take me to woman behind a desk who proceeds to tell me on and on about the benefits of their business class membership. I keep saying I don't want it. She keeps saying but there's this and that and I keep saying I don't want it. This goes on and I'm starting to get exasperated. Finally, FINALLY, she relents. This was about two months ago, and I've shopped at that Costco twice now. So I went to a different Costco with my brother, one that's 1500 miles from my Costco. It's his Costco.  I see an expensive item, a drone, and I've read about it and been wanting to buy it, so I did.  But the drone is not actually there: I have to get a card and give it to the lady and she goes and fetches it from the armory and brings it to another woman, the woman over there. After I pay, they tell me to go to the woman over there to get my drone. I do, and she starts trying to upsell me on their business class membership, telling me I've already spent X amount at Costo since I joined up a couple of months ago --- and she was able to see on her computer the amount that I had spent on two occasions at MY Costco --- "and along with this 700-hundred dollar drone it would have almost paid for itself already ..."  
And I'm going "HOLY FUCK, COSTCO ... LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE. I JUST WANT TO SHOP IN PEACE, GET MY CARTON OF 27 KIWIS AND MY DRONE AND GO HOME." 

Fuck me. Shopping is such an ordeal now. 

Rant over. 

How do you think Costco makes money and isn't enshittified? There's nothing about your experience that was shitty other than you being cheap and not understanding the math. 

Posted
On 10/27/2025 at 10:26 AM, Captainant said:

AI is best suited for tasks where "good enough is good enough". Low-stakes small tasks like changing column headers in a CSV to be camel case instead of lower case, or building a small data scraper method for a web crawler, etc etc. But it's best thought of as another tool in the toolbox, not as THE tool in the box. 

For now. This stuff is in its infancy. Look what’s happening already with vibe coding, a concept that has existed for five minutes.

We are driving on roads with cars with no one in them. And everyone is like “*shrug*, this is fine”. 

2025 will be remembered (by the robots, after they kill us all) as the year this all really started (ended?). In ten years this world will be unrecognizable. Full enshittification. 

Posted
1 hour ago, SimonBolivar said:

The headaches of a giant robot wandering around and breaking stuff then falling on your dog and killing it are much more realistic than a robot maid that you can fuck.

You just made @MissingInAction curl up in a ball and weep in the corner.

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Posted
13 minutes ago, Buzzrock said:

For now. This stuff is in its infancy. Look what’s happening already with vibe coding, a concept that has existed for five minutes.

I've personally seen more projects fail than succeed where the implementation partner touted their accelerated timeframe thanks to their coding assistants. I use coding assistants myself and it's incredibly helpful, but """vibe coding""" replaces about 10% of what software engineering is. In my experience "coding" is working with stakeholders to ensure that what's being made is actually meeting the business need - NOT just crapping out code and throwing it over the wall.

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Posted
1 hour ago, immamac said:

How do you think Costco makes money and isn't enshittified? There's nothing about your experience that was shitty other than you being cheap and not understanding the math. 

I have a Sam's membership.  I know how to access my account online.

Last time I was shopping there, I needed an age verification for booze and I get the schpiel for an upgraded membership.

Fuck You.  If i want it, I'll buy it.  Just check my fucking ID.

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Posted
3 minutes ago, Iceman said:

I have a Sam's membership.  I know how to access my account online.

Last time I was shopping there, I needed an age verification for booze and I get the schpiel for an upgraded membership.

Fuck You.  If i want it, I'll buy it.  Just check my fucking ID.

I think people are just tired of constantly being upsold by everyone, all the time. 

If I walk into a store and ask for X, I don't want X 2.0, or X3, or the Y model.  I asked for X, just fucking give me X. 

I get it's their job, but it's exhausting.  Upsell the idiots who come in and have no idea what they want. 

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Posted
7 minutes ago, Js1 said:

I think people are just tired of constantly being upsold by everyone, all the time. 

If I walk into a store and ask for X, I don't want X 2.0, or X3, or the Y model.  I asked for X, just fucking give me X. 

I get it's their job, but it's exhausting.  Upsell the idiots who come in and have no idea what they want. 

"Have you joined our Executive member's club?  Have you downloaded our app?  Would you like our credit card, you'll get 10% off your purchase today?"

You get that at Costco....you get it at Bob's House of Lightbulbs, it doesn't matter.  Every.  Single.  Place.

Fuck, I hate looking to buy something online.  Hey, I'd like to check out nice wool overcoats.  Search.  See a link to nice coat at Calvin's Coat Shop.  Click to see it....the screen is immediately blocked by multiple windows asking me to sign up for their Executive Premium Platinum Members club, and then to download their app, and then to apply for their store-branded credit card.  Fucking hell, I just wanted to look a the coat to see if I want to buy it.

I am trying to decide whether to buy something you are selling, and BEFORE you let me do that, you put up multiple barriers to me doing so.  Fuck you.

Posted
32 minutes ago, Captainant said:

I've personally seen more projects fail than succeed where the implementation partner touted their accelerated timeframe thanks to their coding assistants. I use coding assistants myself and it's incredibly helpful, but """vibe coding""" replaces about 10% of what software engineering is. In my experience "coding" is working with stakeholders to ensure that what's being made is actually meeting the business need - NOT just crapping out code and throwing it over the wall.

Again, for now. There’s no way I’d encourage a young person to get into coding. I’m grateful my son is seriously considering trade school. 

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Posted
16 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

"Have you joined our Executive member's club?  Have you downloaded our app?  Would you like our credit card, you'll get 10% off your purchase today?"

You get that at Costco....you get it at Bob's House of Lightbulbs, it doesn't matter.  Every.  Single.  Place.

Fuck, I hate looking to buy something online.  Hey, I'd like to check out nice wool overcoats.  Search.  See a link to nice coat at Calvin's Coat Shop.  Click to see it....the screen is immediately blocked by multiple windows asking me to sign up for their Executive Premium Platinum Members club, and then to download their app, and then to apply for their store-branded credit card.  Fucking hell, I just wanted to look a the coat to see if I want to buy it.

I am trying to decide whether to buy something you are selling, and BEFORE you let me do that, you put up multiple barriers to me doing so.  Fuck you.

It’s exhausting. 

Posted
40 minutes ago, Captainant said:

In my experience "coding" is working with stakeholders to ensure that what's being made is actually meeting the business need - NOT just crapping out code and throwing it over the wall.

frustrated office space GIF

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Posted
10 minutes ago, Buzzrock said:

Again, for now. There’s no way I’d encourage a young person to get into coding. I’m grateful my son is seriously considering trade school. 

If I were doing it again now, I'd be more interested in trade school than a 4 year university. It worked out well for me, but I had a way different "board state" than your son does. I was an ok-not-great student and I wasn't worried about finding a job - just if it would be a good (read: cool) job. That's definitely not the case anymore, like for fucking ANY degree holder.

A trade school is a much more sure deal, and will give much more tangibly useful knowledge compared to the breadth of knowledge a bachelor's degree encompasses.

Posted
16 minutes ago, HenryJames said:

On excerpt that is interesting:

Quote

Doctorow also spends a lot of time singing the praises of "interoperability." It's a technical computer term that basically means allowing products or services to work with other products or services. One example is printer ink cartridges. In his ideal world, any competitor would be able to make ink cartridges that are compatible — or interoperable — with a given printer. However, in the existing system, makers of printers are able to make it so users must use only their special, very expensive ink cartridges in their printers. This exclusivity is obviously a money-making scheme.

The tech companies have made it so many of their products and services are not interoperable with each other. iPhones won't run Android apps. Bluesky users can't DM their old Twitter contacts. Doctorow suggests these are artificial barriers created by companies to maintain their market power, and that regulations have helped them do it.

This is a huge problem.  It has multiplied exponentially.  BUT, it's not entirely new.  I recall 40 years ago, a high school buddy had a used GM car.  Something was wrong (I can't recall what), and he wanted to fix it himself - good money-saving move, we were poor students and such.  Turns out, the part required a special GM-only wrench or fitting or somesuch to remove and replace.  Why didn't GM use a standard setting (that is, something an ordinary screwdriver/socket/hex wrench could turn)?  Because they couldn't gatekeep that.  Want to replace your air filter?  Cool.  You need to buy our $20 air filter wrench.

I thought that was shitty in the mid-80s.  I had no idea how ubiquitous that approach would become.  Everything is proprietary, with no standardization or interoperability.  

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Posted
10 hours ago, Horn Under a Bad Sign said:

I go to Costco. I want to renew my membership. I haven't been a member for a few years because I lived in a Costco-free zone but now there is Costco. I just want the basic membership.  That's all I want. I don't want to be upsold, I don't want the super deluxe special extra, I just want the basic membership. They take me to woman behind a desk who proceeds to tell me on and on about the benefits of their business class membership. I keep saying I don't want it. She keeps saying but there's this and that and I keep saying I don't want it. This goes on and I'm starting to get exasperated. Finally, FINALLY, she relents. This was about two months ago, and I've shopped at that Costco twice now. So I went to a different Costco with my brother, one that's 1500 miles from my Costco. It's his Costco.  I see an expensive item, a drone, and I've read about it and been wanting to buy it, so I did.  But the drone is not actually there: I have to get a card and give it to the lady and she goes and fetches it from the armory and brings it to another woman, the woman over there. After I pay, they tell me to go to the woman over there to get my drone. I do, and she starts trying to upsell me on their business class membership, telling me I've already spent X amount at Costo since I joined up a couple of months ago --- and she was able to see on her computer the amount that I had spent on two occasions at MY Costco --- "and along with this 700-hundred dollar drone it would have almost paid for itself already ..."  
And I'm going "HOLY FUCK, COSTCO ... LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE. I JUST WANT TO SHOP IN PEACE, GET MY CARTON OF 27 KIWIS AND MY DRONE AND GO HOME." 

Fuck me. Shopping is such an ordeal now. 

Rant over. 

That sucks.
 

for anyone wanting to get a Costco membership look on Groupon. They have a deal where you get an in store $50 credit and 20% off any  > $200 online purchase. There was also a 200 off Costco travel so if you use that would pay for the membership 

Also for no perishables if you plan ahead orders > 75 are free shipping 

 

you still have to get your Costco card in store. I went with the business class / surly 1%

Posted
4 minutes ago, Captainant said:

If I were doing it again now, I'd be more interested in trade school than a 4 year university. It worked out well for me, but I had a way different "board state" than your son does. I was an ok-not-great student and I wasn't worried about finding a job - just if it would be a good (read: cool) job. That's definitely not the case anymore, like for fucking ANY degree holder.

A trade school is a much more sure deal, and will give much more tangibly useful knowledge compared to the breadth of knowledge a bachelor's degree encompasses.

I got lucky as hell timing-wise. I failed out of GT twice because I was a) smart enough to get in but b) a degenerate party animal who never went to class. Fortunately I was good at computers, and in the mid-90s if you could spell IT you could get a good job (I got fifteen phone calls the first time I posted my crappy resume on Atlanta Computer Jobs in 1996). I’m also personable (really!) and can sell stuff so I turned it into a career making more money than I ever thought I would (and went back and got a business degree with a 4.0), but I’m really glad I’m close-ish to the end (I hope). I wouldn’t want to be embarking on a career now. 

Posted
12 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

This is a huge problem.  It has multiplied exponentially.  BUT, it's not entirely new.  I recall 40 years ago, a high school buddy had a used GM car.  Something was wrong (I can't recall what), and he wanted to fix it himself - good money-saving move, we were poor students and such.  Turns out, the part required a special GM-only wrench or fitting or somesuch to remove and replace.  Why didn't GM use a standard setting (that is, something an ordinary screwdriver/socket/hex wrench could turn)?  Because they couldn't gatekeep that.  Want to replace your air filter?  Cool.  You need to buy our $20 air filter wrench.

I thought that was shitty in the mid-80s.  I had no idea how ubiquitous that approach would become.  Everything is proprietary, with no standardization or interoperability.  

Doctorow talks quite a bit about this book in that Adam Conover interview I posted a few days ago - one of the biggest mechanisms that got us here is the DMCA. Under its provisions, it's a federal felony to break a "digital lock". So you're legally prohibited from cracking encryption to root your own device, or doing anything at all to interfere with their almighty Intellectual Property rights.

Because there's an inherent "lock in" effect to EVERYTHING these days, it sets the stage for enshittification to happen. Because there's much higher opportunity costs for a consumer to change a behavior, it creates an economic environment where customer exploitation and extraction becomes a more viable and ideal business strategy

Posted
3 minutes ago, Captainant said:

Doctorow talks quite a bit about this book in that Adam Conover interview I posted a few days ago - one of the biggest mechanisms that got us here is the DMCA. Under its provisions, it's a federal felony to break a "digital lock". So you're legally prohibited from cracking encryption to root your own device, or doing anything at all to interfere with their almighty Intellectual Property rights.

Because there's an inherent "lock in" effect to EVERYTHING these days, it sets the stage for enshittification to happen. Because there's much higher opportunity costs for a consumer to change a behavior, it creates an economic environment where customer exploitation and extraction becomes a more viable and ideal business strategy

See the bullshit with John Deere.  If a farmer wants to use his tractor to do X, or he needs to make repair Y.....he fucking can't.  Not without paying an extra fee, or not without bringing it in to the dealer for some proprietary "process" that costs 10X what his repair in the field would cost.

I grew up in a world where farmers and ranchers kept a whole shed of spare parts, bits and bobs that could be used to fashion spare parts or makeshift repairs, etc.  When something went wrong with a piece of equipment, the first place we went was the shed, to see if we could find something to use to fix it ourselves.  Now?  Get fucked.  You just breached the "license agreement" (that's right, you don't even fucking own the whole tractor, you just have a license to use some of its features), voided the warranty, etc. etc.

Make a product.  Sell it at a fair price that provides a decent profit.  Buy that product.  Own that product.  Use it as you wish.  That model is fucking DEAD.

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Posted
Just now, Brisketexan said:

I grew up in a world where farmers and ranchers kept a whole shed of spare parts, bits and bobs that could be used to fashion spare parts or makeshift repairs, etc.  When something went wrong with a piece of equipment, the first place we went was the shed, to see if we could find something to use to fix it ourselves.  Now?  Get fucked.  You just breached the "license agreement" (that's right, you don't even fucking own the whole tractor, you just have a license to use some of its features), voided the warranty, etc. etc.

 

That's because John Deere's bigger business is collecting farmers soil data and building data products to sell to futures market makers and other interested parties. It's literally because JD is collecting a data stream from farmers and collecting 100% of the revenue from selling their data.

THAT is why they're so anti right-to-repair. It puts revenue directly at risk.

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Posted
28 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

See the bullshit with John Deere.  If a farmer wants to use his tractor to do X, or he needs to make repair Y.....he fucking can't.  Not without paying an extra fee, or not without bringing it in to the dealer for some proprietary "process" that costs 10X what his repair in the field would cost.

I grew up in a world where farmers and ranchers kept a whole shed of spare parts, bits and bobs that could be used to fashion spare parts or makeshift repairs, etc.  When something went wrong with a piece of equipment, the first place we went was the shed, to see if we could find something to use to fix it ourselves.  Now?  Get fucked.  You just breached the "license agreement" (that's right, you don't even fucking own the whole tractor, you just have a license to use some of its features), voided the warranty, etc. etc.

Make a product.  Sell it at a fair price that provides a decent profit.  Buy that product.  Own that product.  Use it as you wish.  That model is fucking DEAD.

I don't really want to overstate the connection here with the "masculinity crisis," because it's somewhat tenuous, but I do think there is one. One of the healthier forms of masculinity for boys and young men to aspire to is basically "responsible guy who can fix shit when it breaks." The massive decrease in standardization and interoperability in literally anything that exists physically makes that much harder and much more expensive.  Fuck, just changing the oil in a car made after like 1995 is way more of a pain in the ass than it needs to be.

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Posted
Just now, wildcat09 said:

I don't really want to overstate the connection here with the "masculinity crisis," because it's somewhat tenuous, but I do think there is one. One of the healthier forms of masculinity for boys and young men to aspire to is basically "responsible guy who can fix shit when it breaks." The massive decrease in standardization and interoperability in literally anything that exists physically makes that much harder and much more expensive.  Fuck, just changing the oil in a car made after like 1995 is way more of a pain in the ass than it needs to be.

Also dads need to teach their kids. Just because it’s something you like doing doesn’t mean you should boggart it as your own activity 

My dad loves anything cars and the lawn. Did he try to teach me and my sister any anything about them? No, bc he treated those chores as his escape  from being a parent or spending time with us 

Don’t do that 

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Posted
7 minutes ago, wildcat09 said:

I don't really want to overstate the connection here with the "masculinity crisis," because it's somewhat tenuous, but I do think there is one. One of the healthier forms of masculinity for boys and young men to aspire to is basically "responsible guy who can fix shit when it breaks." The massive decrease in standardization and interoperability in literally anything that exists physically makes that much harder and much more expensive.  Fuck, just changing the oil in a car made after like 1995 is way more of a pain in the ass than it needs to be.

And it's not even cost effective at all

Posted
3 minutes ago, wildcat09 said:

I don't really want to overstate the connection here with the "masculinity crisis," because it's somewhat tenuous, but I do think there is one. One of the healthier forms of masculinity for boys and young men to aspire to is basically "responsible guy who can fix shit when it breaks." The massive decrease in standardization and interoperability in literally anything that exists physically makes that much harder and much more expensive.  Fuck, just changing the oil in a car made after like 1995 is way more of a pain in the ass than it needs to be.

So much this.  Looking back two of the best things I did for my son were (1) taking him on "work weekends" before deer season to a friend's ranch.  Lots of "fixing broken shit," putting up new deer blinds, installing parts in vehicles, feeders, etc., fixing fences.  Just stuff where you problem-solve, work with your hands and tools, and such.  And (2) when he was 14, we bought a used go-kart.  It needed work and customization.  Bought him a set of tools, and told him and his friends to have at it.  There were plenty of weekend days where there were three boys in the driveway, hands bloodied and greasy -- replacing an engine, adjusting the steering, adding lights, what have you.  One of his buddies who worked with him is now getting an engineering degree, has a side-hustle fixing and selling go-karts, and has a job lined up with Peterbilt.  And the boy knows how to use tools to solve problems (even when it gets frustrating).  A shitload of his peers have no fucking idea how to do any of that stuff.  Him?  When something at his flat breaks, he figures out how to fix it and usually does. It gives him a level of self-assurance and masculine satisfaction, as most of us around here are familiar with.

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Posted
1 hour ago, Brisketexan said:

"Have you joined our Executive member's club?  Have you downloaded our app?  Would you like our credit card, you'll get 10% off your purchase today?"

Would you like to spend $10 on a warranty for the $15 mouse you just bought? - happened last month, I declined.

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Posted
Just now, Fudge Nuggets said:

Would you like to spend $10 on a warranty for the $15 mouse you just bought? - happened last month, I declined.

I love that query.  Let's translate it to reality:

Would you like to spend nearly as much as the product price?

For something you have a near-zero chance of needing?

And if you do need it, we'll absolutely find a way not to honor it?

 

It's triple-layer enshittification.

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Posted
3 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

So much this.  Looking back two of the best things I did for my son were (1) taking him on "work weekends" before deer season to a friend's ranch.  Lots of "fixing broken shit," putting up new deer blinds, installing parts in vehicles, feeders, etc., fixing fences.  Just stuff where you problem-solve, work with your hands and tools, and such.  And (2) when he was 14, we bought a used go-kart.  It needed work and customization.  Bought him a set of tools, and told him and his friends to have at it.  There were plenty of weekend days where there were three boys in the driveway, hands bloodied and greasy -- replacing an engine, adjusting the steering, adding lights, what have you.  One of his buddies who worked with him is now getting an engineering degree, has a side-hustle fixing and selling go-karts, and has a job lined up with Peterbilt.  And the boy knows how to use tools to solve problems (even when it gets frustrating).  A shitload of his peers have no fucking idea how to do any of that stuff.  Him?  When something at his flat breaks, he figures out how to fix it and usually does. It gives him a level of self-assurance and masculine satisfaction, as most of us around here are familiar with.

Yep. I love it when my son calls me about his garden or how he fixed something. 

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Posted
13 minutes ago, InkaUtexas said:

Yep. I love it when my son calls me about his garden or how he fixed something. 

Enshittifcation of parenting in the age of smartphones and the internet is real. Outsource childcare to YouTube instead of teaching your kid how to do the things you love 

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Posted (edited)

Youtube helps on a shit-ton of projects though, like a garbage disposal or ceiling fan.

Sometimes, it's just jumping in and seeing how it turns out; but I also don't want to fuck up my house. This year I tore my dryer down to 4 panels and pretty much everything laid out in the garage, to replace one fucking switch in the back behind the drum.  I was pissed, but also enjoyed the actual work.  No way i could tackle that without the help videos.

But yeah, changing a flat on a car or the oil/ clean the fuel system on the lawn mower- I feel like every kid should do that.

In August, wife and I visited 27YO son in he and his wife's first place.  We were sitting around having a drink and I asked him if he had checked the air filters for the air system.
"What air filters?"
"Gotdammit, I failed you, son.  But let's go look..." LOL.

Edited by Iceman
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Posted
33 minutes ago, wildcat09 said:

I don't really want to overstate the connection here with the "masculinity crisis," because it's somewhat tenuous, but I do think there is one. One of the healthier forms of masculinity for boys and young men to aspire to is basically "responsible guy who can fix shit when it breaks." The massive decrease in standardization and interoperability in literally anything that exists physically makes that much harder and much more expensive.  Fuck, just changing the oil in a car made after like 1995 is way more of a pain in the ass than it needs to be.

 

26 minutes ago, hayden_horn said:

And it's not even cost effective at all

 

Depends on how you view the time used for the oil change at home.

If I go to the dealer ($90) I am blowing just about my entire morning/afternoon waiting on my car. If I go to Jiffy Lube ($65), sure it's only 30 minutes, but still time out of my day.

Doing my own oil ($35 or so) is time/money - but I also can work around it the chanage too, drain my oil - mow the lawn. Change filter and fill oil, done and go drink a beer watch TV. Plus I get to have my kid help me/show him how to do it.

 

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Posted
Just now, Captain Ron said:

 

 

Depends on how you view the time used for the oil change at home.

If I go to the dealer ($90) I am blowing just about my entire morning/afternoon waiting on my car. If I go to Jiffy Lube ($65), sure it's only 30 minutes, but still time out of my day.

Doing my own oil ($35 or so) is time/money - but I also can work around it the chanage too, drain my oil - mow the lawn. Change filter and fill oil, done and go drink a beer watch TV. Plus I get to have my kid help me/show him how to do it.

 

all fair enough. 

but i don't remember the last time an oil change at a valvoline or a 5 minute oil place took me more than a half hour.

the dealership is a time suck, and on topic for enshittification. you go to the dealership, and it's upsell upsell upsell. oh, we noticed it's time for an ac treatment for $450, gtfo. think you need some blinker juice for $650, fuck your own face

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Posted
12 minutes ago, Iceman said:

Youtube helps on a shit-ton of projects though, like a garbage disposal or ceiling fan.

Oh, no doubt.  Had to change out a headlamp bulb on my sedan a few years back.  Found a video on Youtube, because I couldn't quite figure out how to pull the assembly.  It showed me the way, then I did it and changed out a $3 bulb instead of a $150 assembly.  As things have gotten more complicated, those tutorials are helpful, no shame in that game.  I wasn't fixing a 1948 jeep, where you can see how every part is mounted when you open the hood -- I was fixing a more complex modern car.

1 minute ago, Captain Ron said:

Depends on how you view the time used for the oil change at home.

If I go to the dealer ($90) I am blowing just about my entire morning/afternoon waiting on my car. If I go to Jiffy Lube ($65), sure it's only 30 minutes, but still time out of my day.

Doing my own oil ($35 or so) is time/money - but I also can work around it the chanage too, drain my oil - mow the lawn. Change filter and fill oil, done and go drink a beer watch TV. Plus I get to have my kid help me/show him how to do it.

And don't discount the value of "doing a job well-done."  The satisfaction of "yeah, I took care of that" has major value.

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Posted
2 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Oh, no doubt.  Had to change out a headlamp bulb on my sedan a few years back.  Found a video on Youtube, because I couldn't quite figure out how to pull the assembly.  It showed me the way, then I did it and changed out a $3 bulb instead of a $150 assembly.  As things have gotten more complicated, those tutorials are helpful, no shame in that game.  I wasn't fixing a 1948 jeep, where you can see how every part is mounted when you open the hood -- I was fixing a more complex modern car.

And don't discount the value of "doing a job well-done."  The satisfaction of "yeah, I took care of that" has major value.

Yep, just replaced the sway bar and links on my old jeep. If I can tackle it, no worries. But some shit is above my pay grade. 

And, time is money. If I can be working (and invoicing) then sometimes it makes sense to outsource. 

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Posted
Just now, InkaUtexas said:

Yep, just replaced the sway bar and links on my old jeep. If I can tackle it, no worries. But some shit is above my pay grade. 

And, time is money. If I can be working (and invoicing) then sometimes it makes sense to outsource. 

That cost-benefit changes as you get older and your time is literally more valuable.  If I can bill for a half hour of time instead of do some task, it's almost always worth it to outsource.  But when I was young and poor?  DIY was almost always the right call.

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Posted
1 minute ago, Brisketexan said:

That cost-benefit changes as you get older and your time is literally more valuable.  If I can bill for a half hour of time instead of do some task, it's almost always worth it to outsource.  But when I was young and poor?  DIY was almost always the right call.

Fuck yeah. The amount of times I had to fix my mower... Got the scars to prove it! But yes, me and boy fenced the 10 acres. Girl child was a bad ass with helping out. She kept my chainsaw always running and ready. I hated messing with it. But I am a writer and she designs drones. Go figure. 

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Posted
1 hour ago, hayden_horn said:

all fair enough. 

but i don't remember the last time an oil change at a valvoline or a 5 minute oil place took me more than a half hour.

the dealership is a time suck, and on topic for enshittification. you go to the dealership, and it's upsell upsell upsell. oh, we noticed it's time for an ac treatment for $450, gtfo. think you need some blinker juice for $650, fuck your own face

 

oh yeah, that's the other thing, I don't have to deal with anyone when I DIY. Sure Autozone might try to sell me some mints or something, but they know why I am there and don't try to sell me much.

 

1 hour ago, Brisketexan said:

And don't discount the value of "doing a job well-done."  The satisfaction of "yeah, I took care of that" has major value.

 

So true. Self satisfaction is so worth it.

 

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Posted
5 hours ago, SimonBolivar said:

Hilarious, also TechPod was talking about robots in the house a few weeks back. They were in agreement that humanoid style robots are going to stay sci-fi for the foreseeable future. Having more roomba style robots that do one task well is the cheaper and more efficient path. The headaches of a giant robot wandering around and breaking stuff then falling on your dog and killing it are much more realistic than a robot maid that you can fuck.

Sad Chad.

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Posted
3 hours ago, Buzzrock said:

Again, for now. There’s no way I’d encourage a young person to get into coding. I’m grateful my son is seriously considering trade school. 

Coding never made sense to me as a career. That always seemed like something a computer would be really good at. 
 

Sidenote, it’s sad to know that in the future  the only “secure” jobs for humans will be backbreaking manual labor jobs. And they won’t even pay well because the market will become flooded with those workers. 

Posted
5 minutes ago, Helobious said:

Coding never made sense to me as a career. That always seemed like something a computer would be really good at. 
 

Sidenote, it’s sad to know that in the future  the only “secure” jobs for humans will be backbreaking manual labor jobs. And they won’t even pay well because the market will become flooded with those workers. 

Jesus, when even Helobious sees it....

Elon Musk believes that humans only have three purposes:

1) To provide close-to-slave labor (every dollar spent on a human is a wasted dollar).  We'll likely be supervised by robots that dish out discipline and punishment for failure to make our quota of whatever.

2) To use all of their meager wages to buy Elon's goods and services.

3) For Elon to fuck, or try to fuck, with his broken dick.

Seriously, those are the only three purposes for human life to exist, according to the Musks and Thiels.  And they are doing everything they can, as fast as they can, to make that dystopian hellscape reality for the entire planet.  And here we are, happily handing them the keys to the kingdom instead of doing what we should be doing: banishing them to a desert island and barring all contact with anyone else.

Posted (edited)
6 hours ago, deter said:

Yesteday a diseased monkey was loose on IH 59 in Louisiana. Authorities advised shooting, then make a rue.

Any updates?

Edited by Armybrat

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