Nike has Nike SB for skateboard and they are (were?) awesome, the last two pairs I bought lasted more than 5 years being worn everyday. For comparison Vans last at best 6 months for me.
I think the parent is talking about quality stuff, and is specifically addressing that in contrast spam is increasing. It’s especially true in video games, more games then ever are released, but the amount of actually enjoyable quality game has barely increased. Last time I checked SoA models were still very lacking at game design, let alone capable of creating a finished original and fun game.
The thing is, though, people are still choosing to spend time on crap.
So as a producer of quality content, your audience has shrunk because a minute spend consuming crap is a minute not available for your thing. And as a consumer, the average total quality being consumed has likely gone down.
Europe explicitly does not provide security guarantees to Taiwan. A large majority of Europeans would not support an intervention. Seen from here sure it would be a loss for Democracy, but there are bigger problems today like climate change and global stability. War for and democracy at all costs narratives doesn’t work like in the US.
Yeah it is obviously mainly a problem for the countries in the eastern hemisphere.
But I expect Europe would help economically and Ukraine (the new military superpower in Europe) would help with planning and strategy and software
Just like Japan, south Korea, Australia and New Zealand send support to the war against the muscovites.
I think that war for democacy first need to happen at home. Europe is at risk, altrough holding up much better them USA did.
US does not war for democracy anyway. It wars for own interests using democracy as a fig leaf or even intentionally destroying it.
It did defended democracy after WWII, really. It did helped Ukraine, initially. But then took autocrats sides and in between did quite a few definitely-not-pro-democracy wars or coups.
I’m in Europe, and I have the same sentiment regarding salary. The difference is I’m more than happy with a simple life and experiences that don’t cost too much money. I have free healthcare, plenty of time for social or outdoor activities. Travels and material things are nice, but I feel like young people are forgetting it doesn’t get better than spending time with friends and family and laughing with them or enjoying nature. Whether you makes 50k a year or you are a billionaire it’s the same (not talking about genuinely poor people obviously). Driving a lambo is additional fun, but that’s hardly what makes a day interesting in itself for me, so sometimes I’m not sure what younger people obsessed with getting rich, at least in Europe, are chasing.
The US had the strongest military in the world using outdated 20th century metrics. The new reality is the world is watching the US losing the war against Iran, depleting critical weapons inventories that need China’s supply chain to be rebuilt.
When the French used colorful obsolete uniforms in WWI, it was a skill issue. They had all the time in the world to modernize, but got cocky and made a terrible mistake.
The US made their military supply chain too complex, and in several points tied to private interests more than national security. It's not just the rare earths (that is a lame excuse), it's how insanely bloated the supply chain is due to too many hands on the pot. That is the major US vulnerability right now, and not letting that go (those private interests controlling a lot of stuff) is choking the US.
Most importantly, the war on Iran is asymmetrical, so it's not about having a powerful military. It's more a failure of soft power than strength. That soft power loss was also a skill issue (ostracized many international allies, etc).
It's more like the US broke its own toys and doesn't want China to fill the power vacuum it has put itself in.
One way insulation does not exist. If your house is insulated to keep the heat inside, it is also very good at keeping the heat outside / cold inside.
Also tangentially many Europeans seem to be confusing insulation with inertia, saying their house is correctly insulated against the heat when in fact it’s just a stone building that is taking more time to heat up. At the extreme you have European churches buildings that are very badly insulated but stay cold most of summer because of all the stone mass.
One thing Europeans have yet to realize is that good insulation only works when the nights are cold enough to evacuate the heat before it reaches the inside, and that during a strong heatwave there is no adaptation possible, AC is needed.
> many Europeans seem to be confusing insulation with inertia
That is true. I heard that many times...
> during a strong heatwave there is no adaptation possible, AC is needed.
At some point, yes, obviously. But in many cases I see people installing an AC without actually trying anything else. And then it is an energy orgy: AC set to 16C with sunlight hitting straight to the middle of the room...
You should rewatch Office Space, The Matrix or Fight Club to remind you what a typical office job was like in the 90s and what Gen X grew up with. Thinking you are entitled to a fun and creative job is more like a Millenials fantasy to me.
At their core all these self help books are not teaching you how to reshape your speech, but emotional intelligence. They are teaching better understanding of other and yourself. You can then use this understanding to have more fulfilling relations, or more easily manipulate others if you are less well intentioned. The line is very easy to draw, being honest is natural, you say the truth and are open to genuinely understand and build on the other person responses. On the other hand manipulating takes a very different mindset of faking being open to what others are saying.
Bitcoin has a 1.5T market cap with 0 revenue. I think Musk really got his eyes opened when he started playing with Dogecoin a few years ago. He applied the lessons successfully with Tesla, making the company an empty shell PR vehicle to support the TSLA "token".
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