Random Chat, Thoughts, Posts, and/or Rants Thread

[sparechange]

I feel you, @sparechange. People think when you have money you have no problems. There must be an element of bitterness or something, it's bizarre the way people overlook your issues just because you've got money in the bank.

Hope you manage some less stressful nights. My body has randomly decided to wake up with feelings of anxiety at 5am every day now. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed things improve and the stress gets a little less intense for ya!

I've been having going up the rollercoaster anxiety butterflies in my chest the past few days, fun stuff :X

 

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[Wouter]

Thought: What if you already know enough?

 

[Kid]

Ever played car video game with futuristic info on screen?
Guys do it in RL via holograms in a car.

There is also video to see how it looks while driving https://www.fastcompany.com/9056108...s-augmented-reality-gm-50-million-fundraising

 

[Boogie]

I'm having so much anxiety in the middle of the night I can feel my heart thumping in my chest due to being under so much stress.......

I've been having going up the rollercoaster anxiety butterflies in my chest the past few days, fun stuff :X

Good luck with your business situation.

You should consider seeing a doc.

This is not medical advice:

I find that my blood pressure goes up a lot if I stay up too late. The longer I try to stretch out my day to get more done or try to relax after working late, the more I can feel my BP rise. I've become very sensitive to the feeling. Then my heart thumps a lot and I don't sleep through the night well enough not to have the butterflies in the chest and then I can't think as clearly without getting more stressed or get as much done the next day. I find it very difficult to go to sleep after my BP has gone up much.

For me, it helps a lot if I can get to bed early enough to get at least 6-7 hours of sleep. Sleep helps get my blood pressure and stress level down. If I go to sleep before my BP starts rocketing up at night, then I can usually sleep through the night. If I don't, then either I can't fall asleep or it's broken sleep and my chest feels jittery the next day. Sleep deprivation and blood pressure problems are a bitch. They can cause all kinds of heart and kidney issues.

Years ago, I fell into the trap that I was like this every night and then I couldn't sleep or get my BP down when our tech startup was failing. I could only sleep about 1.5-2 hours per night and couldn't break the cycle because my BP was so high. The lack of sleep combined with the stress from the business put me up over 200/100 BP so I ended up in the hospital for a few days with blood thinner shots in my stomach, nitroglycerine, oxygen. The whole 9 yards. Getting some sleep in the hospital brought it all back down.

Now for the non-sleep part of my story. I was a mess for years with respect to weight and health. My doctor had been telling me I needed to lose weight and get more exercise, but one day he said I had to get serious. I was having too many issues. I ended up taking control by becoming a very hard core whole food plant based vegan for a year and a half after seeing what my cousin and her husband did for themselves. So I went home from the doctor and just made the change that night. It's like business. I just had to start. I lost a lot of weight and my numbers BP, A1C, cholesterol, etc. all became great. None out of spec. I just take the lowest dose BP med. They don't like to cut those off after you've been on them. After that improved, I could easily exercise and hike miles. I haven't been so good this last year and a half though. I've kept exercising, walking, hiking some running, but I went back to meat out of stress, convenience, and family pressure after my mom died and with the pandemic. So I've put on weight and my BP has been going up. The last time I went in, my doc asked me what had happened since I was doing so well and all my numbers had previously moved into line with regular people. I told him I fell off the wagon. He told me I needed to go back to doing whatever I had been. He wasn't a vegetarian and didn't know what I had been doing to get better, but it was obvious I screwed up. Of course, I didn't make the change that night this time, I've waited all year until I got more miserable again. Inertia. Now, I have been getting more sleep, and went back to the whole food plant based lifestyle. I've started to drop weight again and the BP is getting better.

Best of luck with your business and with your sleep issues

 

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[sparechange]

Good luck with your business situation.

You should consider seeing a doc.

This is not medical advice:

I find that my blood pressure goes up a lot if I stay up too late. The longer I try to stretch out my day to get more done or try to relax after working late, the more I can feel my BP rise. I've become very sensitive to the feeling. Then my heart thumps a lot and I don't sleep through the night well enough not to have the butterflies in the chest and then I can't think as clearly without getting more stressed or get as much done the next day. I find it very difficult to go to sleep after my BP has gone up much.

For me, it helps a lot if I can get to bed early enough to get at least 6-7 hours of sleep. Sleep helps get my blood pressure and stress level down. If I go to sleep before my BP starts rocketing up at night, then I can usually sleep through the night. If I don't, then either I can't fall asleep or it's broken sleep and my chest feels jittery the next day. Sleep deprivation and blood pressure problems are a bitch. They can cause all kinds of heart and kidney issues.

Years ago, I fell into the trap that I was like this every night and then I couldn't sleep or get my BP down when our tech startup was failing. I could only sleep about 1.5-2 hours per night and couldn't break the cycle because my BP was so high. The lack of sleep combined with the stress from the business put me up over 200/100 BP so I ended up in the hospital for a few days with blood thinner shots in my stomach, nitroglycerine, oxygen. The whole 9 yards. Getting some sleep in the hospital brought it all back down.

Now for the non-sleep part of my story. I was a mess for years with respect to weight and health. My doctor had been telling me I needed to lose weight and get more exercise, but one day he said I had to get serious. I was having too many issues. I ended up taking control by becoming a very hard core whole food plant based vegan for a year and a half after seeing what my cousin and her husband did for themselves. So I went home from the doctor and just made the change that night. It's like business. I just had to start. I lost a lot of weight and my numbers BP, A1C, cholesterol, etc. all became great. None out of spec. I just take the lowest dose BP med. They don't like to cut those off after you've been on them. After that improved, I could easily exercise and hike miles. I haven't been so good this last year and a half though. I've kept exercising, walking, hiking some running, but I went back to meat out of stress, convenience, and family pressure after my mom died and with the pandemic. So I've put on weight and my BP has been going up. The last time I went in, my doc asked me what had happened since I was doing so well and all my numbers had previously moved into line with regular people. I told him I fell off the wagon. He told me I needed to go back to doing whatever I had been. He wasn't a vegetarian and didn't know what I had been doing to get better, but it was obvious I screwed up. Of course, I didn't make the change that night this time, I've waited all year until I got more miserable again. Inertia. Now, I have been getting more sleep, and went back to the whole food plant based lifestyle. I've started to drop weight again and the BP is getting better.

Best of luck with your business and with your sleep issues

Thank you, hope everything is good with you

 

[Xeon]

 

[Xeon]

Perpetual motion machines. Intriguing.

 

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[Deleted78083]

Fastlane story time: Bumble

Tinder is a dating app onto which heterosexual girls can swipe guys and decide which ones they want to connect with based on pictures photoshop skills and overall profile and the other way around with heterosexual guys. Once a guy and a girl said they wanted to meet the other, they "match" and can start a conversation. Tinder was the second highest grossing app of the 2010-2020 decade on the Google Play Store, behind Netflix.

Having said that, I can only imagine how a minority of male users with poor social skills managed to start a conversation with disagreeable comments, which scarred off a minority of female users, which created a need for a dating app where "girls would be in control of the conversation". And so Bumble was born.

Bumble is exactly like Tinder...except that guys cannot start the conversation. Girls must send the first message within 24 hours and if they don't, the match is lost forever.

Calling itself the "feminist tinder", Bumble grew its community. Some days ago, it has announced that it would IPO. Analysts forecast the value of the app to 6 billion USD.

6 billion USD
​

It's difficult to find more fastlane than that. I imagine the discussion the founder of the app had one night, tipsy with a friend.

"So many guys are rude and aggressive on Tinder with their first message.
- Yeah. How about we make an app where they can't send the first message?
- Yeah."

Your idea does not need to be complicated. As long as there is a need to serve, you're all set.

 

[Deleted78083]

Thought: What if you already know enough?

@Andy Black wrote a thread about that. Or he made a video. One of these.

 

[Andy Black]

Thought: What if you already know enough?

This is a very liberating thought!

@Andy Black wrote a thread about that. Or he made a video. One of these.

Thanks @mon_fi

I actually wrote a thread years ago and forgot about it and then wrote another one:

1. You already know enough
2. What if you already know enough?

 

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[sparechange]

hey ive been asking for feedback on my products to potential customers and hear..........









guess that means they don't like it? anyone experience this before? I'd rather hear your product sucks instead of nothing

 

[StrikingViper69]

hey ive been asking for feedback on my products to potential customers and hear..........









guess that means they don't like it? anyone experience this before? I'd rather hear your product sucks instead of nothing

How many people have you asked? If you asked 10 people, it might be expected that no-one responds... if yoi asked 1000 people... that's another matter.

Have you had any informal feedback? Or a way to measure user use?

 

[sparechange]

How many people have you asked? If you asked 10 people, it might be expected that no-one responds... if yoi asked 1000 people... that's another matter.

Have you had any informal feedback? Or a way to measure user use?

err about 25 as of now I did get a few responses but the rest crickets (which worries me leading me to believe they don't like my product)

I do have a customer that loves the brand & product although it puzzles me even more the rest of my list went full ghost. And one return, funny story.. the police actually brought me my product back lol, I emailed them asking why they returned it & got no response, but maybe it could be due to my emails are heading to their junkmail? Aswell as the other ghosting ones..? But they did order off my store so.. yeh pretty confusing.

 

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[StrikingViper69]

err about 25 as of now I did get a few responses but the rest crickets (which worries me leading me to believe they don't like my product)

I do have a customer that loves the brand & product although it puzzles me even more the rest of my list went full ghost. And one return, funny story.. the police actually brought me my product back lol, I emailed them asking why they returned it & got no response, but maybe it could be due to my emails are heading to their junkmail? Aswell as the other ghosting ones..? But they did order off my store so.. yeh pretty confusing.

25 isn't many. It could be they like your product but have doing surveys!

How are you reaching out for feedback?

 

[sparechange]

25 isn't many. It could be they like your product but have doing surveys!

How are you reaching out for feedback?

FB DM (from my page name where they messaged me first) and email.

 

[Wouter]

This is a very liberating thought!



Thanks @mon_fi

I actually wrote a thread years ago and forgot about it and then wrote another one:

1. You already know enough
2. What if you already know enough?

Thanks Andy!

 

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[StrikingViper69]

FB DM (from my page name where they messaged me first) and email.

Maybe try sending them to an anonymous survey? It helps remove any awkwardness they might feel. Offer a prize for completing the survey?

 

[Xeon]

I think FB DM does not always work because everyone's FB Messenger is choke full and busy.
Also, some products / industries are colder whereby the audience isn't as passionate about the product. E.g: would you rant and rave about the bottle of mineral water bottle vs say, K9 Sports Sack?

I remember reading that for many people on Etsy, they get about 1 review for every 15 - 25 sales made, so if we assume reviews are more or less similar in nature as the type of product feedback you're seeking currently, I think your figures are not far off.

 

[rollerskates]

Lmfao. If only business was that easy. It's kind of insulting to me actually. I spent over two years busting my a$$ off. Days where I was on the brink of closing everything. Days where I didn't have one cent to make my phone bill as I maxed out my credit cards for inventory. This is the problem with 99% of the population, they don't understand what it takes. They just see the end result. The "overnight" success. Sometimes I just feel like not picking up calls or answering texts. It's not just him... it's everyone around me. Surprisingly though, it's not my friends that act like this... it's only my immediate family like cousins and shit. Hell, my brothers don't even ask me to create something for them. They bring me ideas and I'm more than happy to help them.

My business is not super successful but growing. I can identify with some of this but my absolute favorite part of being in business for myself was when I got called a slacker. A. Slacker. By someone to whom I owe no money to, am not taking money from, and have done a ton of essential personal favors that they couldn't do themselves because of their 9-5. The reason I can do them favors? I have a flexible schedule. Do I slack sometimes? Yes. Is it their business when I don't live with them and am not married to them and don't ask them for money ever? NO. And they wouldn't even know I slack because I am not with them except when they visit and then obviously I'm not the kind of asshat who works when I have company.
I just....

 

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[Kid]

I remember reading that for many people on Etsy, they get about 1 review for every 15 - 25 sales made,

Read same thing about Amazon so it's something about society as whole.

My business is not super successful but growing. I can identify with some of this but my absolute favorite part of being in business for myself was when I got called a slacker. A. Slacker. By someone to whom I owe no money to, am not taking money from, and have done a ton of essential personal favors that they couldn't do themselves because of their 9-5. The reason I can do them favors? I have a flexible schedule. Do I slack sometimes? Yes. Is it their business when I don't live with them and am not married to them and don't ask them for money ever? NO. And they wouldn't even know I slack because I am not with them except when they visit and then obviously I'm not the kind of asshat who works when I have company.
I just....

Its projection (theirs). But for fun we can all call ourselves slackers when around 9to5 people while giving a wink to other fastlaners. That's how i see it.

 

[sparechange]

Maybe try sending them to an anonymous survey? It helps remove any awkwardness they might feel. Offer a prize for completing the survey?

Good idea, gonna look into some surveys. Thanks!

 

[sparechange]

I think FB DM does not always work because everyone's FB Messenger is choke full and busy.
Also, some products / industries are colder whereby the audience isn't as passionate about the product. E.g: would you rant and rave about the bottle of mineral water bottle vs say, K9 Sports Sack?

I remember reading that for many people on Etsy, they get about 1 review for every 15 - 25 sales made, so if we assume reviews are more or less similar in nature as the type of product feedback you're seeking currently, I think your figures are not far off.

Hm I guess that makes sense, although the whole point of me sending out free product was to gather feedback and just feel like I'm sort of wasting my time considering not only am I losing money and my time delivering it to their homes, they don't give me input on what to improve.

People these days.... can't even be bothered to offer a couple comments when I'm doing all this work! Selfish... I'll take those numbers into consideration. Thanks, how have you been doing lately ?

 

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[Xeon]

Hm I guess that makes sense, although the whole point of me sending out free product was to gather feedback and just feel like I'm sort of wasting my time considering not only am I losing money and my time delivering it to their homes, they don't give me input on what to improve.

People these days.... can't even be bothered to offer a couple comments when I'm doing all this work! Selfish... I'll take those numbers into consideration. Thanks, how have you been doing lately ?

If you want to know what people think of your product, I think you can try Pickfu. For the survey type, choose open-ended survey where it's a group of people (50 and more) giving you their thoughts of your product. For audience, set it so that it matches your target market (e.g: male, white, 18 - 24, salary above US$30,000, single, owns car, has dog....) Of course, you can't send the product to them so it's good if you want to know how and what to improve etc. It's not cheap, however. Expect to pay between $150 and above. There's a coupon code which I used previously which helps to save $$$ from pickfu : MYWIFEQUIT (50% off at checkout). I found this code on the mywifequitherjob.com website lol

Anyway, I made some sales recently, but it's by and large inconsistent, and probably more of a fluke due to Etsy's algorithm. I'm fine-tuning some things and will release the new versions in Nov.

Also, a cheaper way to Pickfu is to go on Instagram. Buy Story Shoutouts (with poll options) on big pages whereby their followers are your target audience, and run them as story polls. The poll question is up to you but you can use images / text etc. On big pages, you can easily get 8000 - 30,000 and above number of votes from their viewers. In my case, I had a doubt that my current product doesn't reasonate too well with my audience on Etsy, so I found IG accounts where their followers are my target audience, and did IG story polls with them. Turns out that my suspicions and doubts were correct. Also helps to validate the product, especially when you've say, 2000 vs 18,900 votes, and you know which direction to go.....

 

[sparechange]

If you want to know what people think of your product, I think you can try Pickfu. For the survey type, choose open-ended survey where it's a group of people (50 and more) giving you their thoughts of your product. For audience, set it so that it matches your target market (e.g: male, white, 18 - 24, salary above US$30,000, single, owns car, has dog....) Of course, you can't send the product to them so it's good if you want to know how and what to improve etc. It's not cheap, however. Expect to pay between $150 and above. There's a coupon code which I used previously which helps to save $$$ from pickfu : MYWIFEQUIT (50% off at checkout). I found this code on the mywifequitherjob.com website lol

Anyway, I made some sales recently, but it's by and large inconsistent, and probably more of a fluke due to Etsy's algorithm. I'm fine-tuning some things and will release the new versions in Nov.

Also, a cheaper way to Pickfu is to go on Instagram. Buy Story Shoutouts (with poll options) on big pages whereby their followers are your target audience, and run them as story polls. The poll question is up to you but you can use images / text etc. On big pages, you can easily get 8000 - 30,000 and above number of votes from their viewers. In my case, I had a doubt that my current product doesn't reasonate too well with my audience on Etsy, so I found IG accounts where their followers are my target audience, and did IG story polls with them. Turns out that my suspicions and doubts were correct. Also helps to validate the product, especially when you've say, 2000 vs 18,900 votes, and you know which direction to go.....

Well the thing is I'm looking for feedback on the product itself, I kinda think the idea is verified but just need input on the functionality of it besides my own biased opinion.

(which I mean, I ofc have the best product in the world)

I think my new strategy will be to contact my email lists and confirm they infact want it in exchange for feedback, only thing I've came up with. It's kind of a nightmare dealing with people, I had one person order from my site then call the cops on me (they have been at my house twice)

Maybe I'll get swatted one day...... lol that would be fun.

 

[Kid]

Google will try to kill you. Accidentally. Waymo starts to open driverless ride-hailing service to the public – TechCrunch

Now a joke:
-How much more money Google wants to steal from people?
-Way-Mo!

 

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[Xeon]

 

[sparechange]

I just went to pickup some supplies (last purchase was from a Canadian company that makes the product here)

And today picked up a 5x cheaper alternative from China, yikes. As much as I want to support CAD companies...........

I'll have to reconsider

Makes me wonder how many jobs / business's are killed locally due to supporting overseas companies/factories etc. No-one want's to pay extra to support local companies (ok that might not be totally true) But look at Walmart for example, you can buy clothing for $5 bucks vs who knows how much it would cost to produce the same clothing locally.

And looking at my receipt, holy jeez. 5% gst and 7% pst. Gotta pay those taxes...

 

[LordGanon]

Homeopathic CBD for dogs, 49.99€ per bottle.

Production cost probably below 1€.

Whoever thought of this is now probably a made man, and, if you ask me, ethically impaired.

 

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[Deleted78083]

Produce, produce, produce: why production matters, and why all money is debt.

When I was a kid, I use to think that if I wanted to make my country richer, I would have to sell a product to other countries, not mine. The balance of account of my country was all I had a look at because I thought that was the only way to pay off debt: by selling to others, not to ourselves.

That was wrong.

Let's imagine a village inside which you have a baker selling bread, a butcher selling steaks and a tailor selling suits. If the baker makes one bread per day, the tailor one suit per day and the butcher one steak per day, he'll have 1/3 of bread and will have to sell 1/3 to the butcher and 1/3 to the tailor. Similarly, the small amount of bread he sold will get him only 1/3 of suit and 1/3 of steak, because the other two are no more productive. However, if each inhabitant makes three pieces, the baker three breads, the tailor three suits and the butcher three steaks, they each will be able to get one bread, one steak and one suit, exchanging that what they produce against that that was produced by the other.

Simple, if you produce a lot, you get to have a lot in exchange.

Now let's have a look at money, and why all money is debt.

Money was invented to simplify this exchange of bread, steacks and suits. Instead of exchanging bread against steak, we exchange them both against money, easy.

Originally, no one has money. Money arrives when it is borrowed. As such, the baker has bread, the butcher has steaks, the tailor has suits, but none of them have money to buy the goods of the others. They therefore decide to each borrow two euros.

With his two euros, the baker will buy one suit for one euro and one steak for one euro. He now has spent all his money. The tailor and the butcher now have each three euros, two that they borrowed, and one, coming from selling their goods to the baker. But soon, the tailor goes spend one euro at the baker, and one euro at the butcher, and the butcher goes spend one euro at the tailor and one euro at baker.

Results: each inhabitant spent two euros that they borrowed to acquire two goods they did not produce, and each inhabitant sold for a total of two euros of goods.

At the beginning of the situation, they had two euros that they borrowed and three pieces of the good that they make. At the end, they had two euros of debt, two euros of income and a piece of each product they don't produce and two pieces of goods that they produce less than they had at the beginning.

They take their two euros of income and go to the bank where they can reimburse their debts and go back to their shop.

The end.

Lesson: from a purely economic standpoint, the end of money is its disappearance. Money is merely there to facilitate the exchange of goods between each other, but at the end, all money must be refunded.

What matters the most is not the money, but what is produced in the economy. He who produced a lot for others has others producing a lot for him. Money allows the exchange of goods produced and must eventually go back to the bank.

As such, if you want to have a positive impact on the world, your job is to produce.

What you do doesn't matter as when you produce, you're making the world better and richer because you're making something. If no one did anything, everyone would be poor. If the entire planet was super productive, everyone would be "rich"! Rich countries are those where people produce a lot. Poor countries are those where people don't produce anything (yes i know, it's more complicated than that).

It doesn't matter what you make, it doesn't matter who you sell to, and I disagree with the idea that good is better than perfect, because I think that anything produced is better than nothing produced.

If you want to help yourself and if you want to help the world, produce, produce, produce. I

M.

 

[ElleMg]

I'm here to rent about letting agents again.

They've billed me incorrectly three times, the first time the 'additional funds' said £29,250. I was like Why do LAs run so badly in the UK?


I only need to pay the blacked out boxes, as 'Advance Rent' is my full tenancy term up front, I dunno why they keep adding an additional amount.

Had to speak to four people from two companies to deal with it, frustrating.

ANYWAY at least as of Wednesday I have my own place again! I'm never taking my freedom for granted again.