What do you just not give a single fuck about that so many people try to make you give a shit about? ( kbin.social )

Stocks, Investing, Gambling, Bitcoin .etc

Look, I'm not a fucking broker or a hustler, okay? I don't care that you keep running around telling me or others to go waste our time and money to put into markets that can be incredibly unpredictable. It is all about luck, chance and risk. Things most wouldn't want to put themselves on the line over even if they were down next to nothing. They'd rather buy lottery tickets.

Son_of_dad ,

The economy.

I'm a laborer. When the economy is bad, my cost of living goes up and the price of food goes up.

When the economy is great, my cost of living goes up and the price of food goes up.

The only people affected by a positive economy seem to be the people wealthy enough to have stock portfolios and large shares in corporations. It doesn't affect me as a laborer in any positive way ever.

tal ,
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

So, two points.

First, I'd encourage anyone to save. And as a place to keep savings, the market has done pretty well as to long-term returns. Having money in a portfolio isn't incompatible with working for a living.

https://www.fool.com/investing/2021/10/31/what-would-happen-if-you-invested-100-a-week-in-th/

Let's take a hypothetical investor named Annie as an example. At 25 years old, Annie has just landed her dream job as a chef, with a starting salary of $30,000 per year. She knows she may never make considerably more than that, but she doesn't care -- she loves her job! She also loves the idea of eventually retiring, though, and because the restaurant she works at doesn't offer pension or retirement benefits, she knows she's going to have to make that happen on her own. Living modestly, she's able to set aside an extra $100 per week, putting that money into an S&P 500 (^GSPC 0.70%) index fund that conservatively returns an average of 9% per year.

How much will Annie have at the end of just 30 years? Incredibly, somewhere around $790,000.

Surprised? This is even more surprising: If Annie can keep finding that extra $100 per week for another 10 years, she'll be sitting on roughly $2 million at the end of that 40-year stretch.

If she retires at 65, and you figure 2% inflation and use their 9% pre-inflation return, those savings generate a post-inflation maybe $140,000/year for her to live on without cutting into the portfolio in real terms.

But, okay, second, set investment aside. Let's just say "does the economy matter"?

Like, if there's a recession, GDP contracts. I'm pretty sure that a lot of people look at that and say "Well, that's just some abstract number. It's got no effect on me."

Inflation, on the other hand, clearly causes prices to rise.

I was looking at a poll from a bit back talking about how most people -- especially in Germany and the US, two of the three countries polled -- deeply dislike inflation. They would much rather have a recession than see high inflation.

In general, economists are going to go the other route. They'll say that recessions are really bad.

So, during Biden's (and Trump's, during COVID) time in office, a number of policies were made (not necessarily by them) that tended to avoid recession, but encourage inflation.

Polling shows that people were unhappy with Biden on the economy, because high (well, as the US goes) inflation showed up during his time in office.

Biden kept quoting figures that are generally considered to be very positive. Low unemployment, for example. But...there was that inflation.

When GDP drops -- and a sustained decline in GDP is what constitutes a recession -- it's indicating that there's less economic activity going on. What that tends to represent is a lot fewer people working -- a lot of layoffs. Companies going under. Maybe furloughs or reduced hours, in some cases. The impact there is that a lot of people have their income go away or be cut, a lot of things get upended.

With inflation, on the other hand, wages are sticky, tend to take a while to catch up, but do catch up. There aren't huge job losses. Things more-or-less keep moving along as they were.

I don't think that Trump or Biden would have acted wildly different on the matter. You could swap their periods in office, and both would have followed their recommendations, which would have been to favor policy that encouraged inflation and avoided recession, though then the inflation would have shown up when Trump was in office. They're not doing it because the economists advising them have some special love of having Americans pay higher prices, but rather because they'd consider that preferable to a recession and the problems that accompany that. Also, neither drives the Federal Reserve, which is what adopted an important chunk of that inflationary policy. In the absence of the pandemic, neither would have wanted inflation -- it's not that high inflation is desirable, just that it's preferable to the alternative of recession.

Son_of_dad ,

You lost me at "save". Save what? Pocket lint? Nobody has the funds for savings anymore. I used to put aside a few hundred bucks a month 10 years ago. Now I can't even afford my entire month's expenses, let alone save any money.

ameancow ,

Yeah also stopped there.

The commenter above was making that very point, that it's so worthless to give us financial advice and knowledge of the economy when a large portion of Americans are scraping together their last nickels to pay their water bills or their electric bills and not always both. Most people don't have a savings that can withstand a minor home emergency or health problem, investing or saving with intention is almost impossible for millions of people.

The funniest part here is that the commenter got a lecture about the economy anyway.

colforge ,

Save WHAT? The gas station takes their bit so I can get to work. The grocery store takes their bit so I can eat to have energy to work, and so I can feed my child. The phone company takes their bit so my boss can keep in touch with me when they want to. The insurance companies take their bits so I can say that I’m insured and have the right to drive, and to put myself deeper in medical debt if anything goes wrong. The landlord takes his bit so I can have a roof over my head. Disney takes their bit so my kid can have her favorite movies and shows on demand because that’s one thing I can give her. And now my coin purse is empty until my employer gives me my bit again. Where do the savings come from, oh wise one?

knightmare1147 ,

Whenever I hear the word 'economy' I replace it with 'rich people's yacht money.' I feel that clarifies a lot of my opinions on the matter.

doctortofu ,
@doctortofu@reddthat.com avatar

I do that too, but I use "rich fucks" - also works!

snownyte OP ,
@snownyte@kbin.social avatar

That's quite frankly how it's designed. Capitalism favors no one but those that have built it and continue building on it.

Kolanaki ,
@Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

Cookies and web trackers.

I don't give a shit if they collect usage data. It's actually more annoying now with the laws requiring a popup notice to opt in or out of them.

tal ,
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

I think that the idea that the EU might have had behind the cookie popup mandate wasn't to actually provide any useful information or options on a per-site basis, but to make users more aware of the amount of tracking occurring.

On an individual website standpoint, I agree with you -- the cookie popup law is obnoxious, and does a poor job of solving a technical problem that is better solved by just not retaining cookies. In fact, not retaining cookies -- a better approach, since I don't have to worry about whether the website is actually doing what it's saying -- exacerbates the cookie popups, because it ensures that a site cannot track you to remember whether it has already shown the cookie popup, so makes it do so all the time. Plus there were already long-existing technical options for a browser to automatically tell a website not to track the user, like P3P, that aren't disruptive from a UI standpoint. I'm just saying that I'm not sure that providing a user a way to avoid tracking on an individual website is actually the goal.

On a related note, though...generally-speaking, I don't care much about EU regulation insofar as it doesn't affect me. People in the EU can do what they want, and if they want to place restrictions that affect people in the EU, fine, whatever. I start to have a problem, though, when websites present cookie popups to me. I'm not in the EU. Now, in fairness, they do seem to have tamped down on that somewhat -- some European websites that used to show them to me seem to have stopped. But I still do get them from the occasional website.

tries a few

Like, thelocal.it is still doing it, for example. France24 doesn't appear to be, though, and I'm pretty sure they used to.

It was especially obnoxious for European websites that had some localization feature for everything but then had the cookie pop-up hardcoded to whatever was locally used of the eight million European languages out there. So the entire website would be presented in English to me except the one popup that you have to click through before seeing anything else, sometimes has extra buttons, and is in Dutch or something.

Miaou ,

I didn't read the whole comment, but absolutely nothing prevents a website from using a cookie to store that you don't want tracking cookies. Whatever source told you otherwise did a good propaganda job.

tal ,
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

Nobody told me that -- I even specifically addressed it in the comment that you are responding to:

In fact, not retaining cookies – a better approach, since I don’t have to worry about whether the website is actually doing what it’s saying – exacerbates the cookie popups, because it ensures that a site cannot track you to remember whether it has already shown the cookie popup, so makes it do so all the time.

Miaou ,

My bad I misunderstood what you meant

Still this is what DNT is for but no one honours that, and it's not the EU's fault

atro_city ,

Do you shit with the door open in public toilets? You have nothing to hide after all and don't require privacy there.

Alexstarfire ,

What about chocolate chip cookies?

ma11en ,

You can get a plugin for Firefox that will do that for you.

Drummyralf , (edited )

I hear ya.

I use Superagent extension in Firefox. I have it set to automatically declines all cookies. Works great about 70% of the time, which saves you 70% of cookie popups.

Also works on mobile, where popups are even worse to navigate.

BroBot9000 ,
@BroBot9000@lemmy.world avatar

New movies and shows.

It’s all just shallow products being pumped out by an uncaring industry that rather slurp up product placement, celebrities and milking dead franchises over writing an original story that’s worth telling.

Check out this amazing essay for more info: https://youtu.be/5tmxfVWDgMM

Magister ,
@Magister@lemmy.world avatar

Same, I never saw a MCU movies for instance

ryathal ,

You're missing out on some quality movies in the early part. Iron man, captain America, and the avengers were all very good. After that it's pretty much civil war and infinity war that are any good.

spittingimage ,
@spittingimage@lemmy.world avatar

Some people just aren't into superhero movies.

Matriks404 , (edited )

Okay, but Iron Man is still a top-notch movie, even if you're not into superheroes and stuff. And since that's the first movie in the MCU you don't need to watch any of the later ones to get the plot.

Drummyralf , (edited )

Not necessarily, it's still taste. I like superhero movies, but hated all iron man stuff. Can absolutely not relate to a cocky billionaire main role. Not enough character arc on a per movie basis to like the movies.

atro_city ,

The French word for "entertainment" is "divertissement" and you don't need to know French to get what it is: a diversion from things that matter.

Yankee_Self_Loader ,

I realized far too late that most mainstream media is about maximizing views and not telling those stories that worth telling as you said. They start with an interesting idea for a story and if it gets popular it just drags on to get the most amount of eyeballs for as long as possible only for it to end long after it should have with an unsatisfying ending.

And don’t get me started on injecting soap opera esque character drama just to keep the lowest common denominator inerested (looking at you For All Mankind)

user224 ,
@user224@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

Newly released music.
I have access to internet, not just decades, but centuries of music. Why should I need to know the songs released this year? It's just a drop in the ocean. I don't need to have the newest music right away.

Similarly with new movies.

Drummyralf ,

No need indeed. I guess many people most of the time enjoy the anticipation more than the actual product they consume. Anticipation can be a fun "hobby" within a hobby for people.

reversebananimals ,

Sports. I've tried to care many times, but its just so boring and pointless.

friend_of_satan , (edited )

Oh. My. God. Can fucking apps learn that when I say "block" and "less like this" I fucking mean it? Don't show me fucking anything about baseball, soccer, tennis, basketball, and especially not American football. I AM NOT YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE.

Also, I have to block a large fraction of my social feeds at certain times of the year because all they talk about are sports.

Usernameblankface ,
@Usernameblankface@lemmy.world avatar

I'll never understand letting the outcome of a game make or break my mood in the following days.

snownyte OP ,
@snownyte@kbin.social avatar

"Lost muh marriage"

"Lost muh job"

"Lost muh car"

"BUT AT LEAST THEM BEARS WON! WOOOOOOO!!!"

akakunai , (edited )

I spent >10 years of my youth playing a sport competitively. I don't think I ever watched a professional game to completion. Unlike pretty much all my teammates, I just could not have cared less.

Play the sport myself? Fun, sure!
Watch someone else play? Uh, why?

I think it's great that people enjoy watching sports. I dunno why but it just bored the hell out of me.

Matriks404 ,

I don't mind playing sports even if I suck at them, but watching them? Uggghhh.

ouRKaoS ,

Celebrity gossip.

I have no idea how so many people are so invested in the lives of famous people, and all of the "Did you hear that so-and-so and some-other-jackass are having a baby!?" Is so boring...

I'd rather mow my lawn with fingernail clippers.

burrito ,

Hopefully Green Bell G-1008 nail clippers. They're significantly better than any clippers I've used before. They'd make the mowing process much better.

hactar42 ,

Like the saying goes:

Everything I know about the Kardashians I learned against my will.

tal ,
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

stocks...incredibly unpredictable

The long-run performance of broad index funds can be pretty predictable.

empireOfLove2 ,
@empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Of course, but the people who are constantly talking about "Stocks" and "The Market" are usually constantly trading, wheeling, dealing, doing all sorts of shit and then trying to brag about how smart they are cause they're "hustling" while... barely keeping up with or not keeping up at all with those broad index funds you already mentioned.

confusedpuppy ,

I've had stocks in a couple forms over my lifetime and after a while, both times I have pulled all my money out.

The first time was shortly after the 2008 crash. All those reassuring words my investing manager person told me were simply sweet nothings. I decided that taking the hit of losing half my money was a life lesson and used the remaining half to go travel and live a life for myself. That investing manager later went on to have a covid party out of defiance for masking requirements, caught covid and died. Felt good knowing my stranger-danger alarms were working even if I didn't understand my decisions fully at the time.

The second time I simply put my money into a low risk, government stock option for a few years. After watching global leaders fumble the handling of a global pandemic, I lost faith my own government to have my best interest in mind. I pulled my money out again.

I personally feel super uncomfortable allowing other people to make money off my money that I am risking. Even if it is low risk. It make me feel exploited.

Ultimately, I decided I don't need my money to work for me because I don't even want to work. I hate the concept of money. To me, money just disconnects us from community and nature.

If you are curious to how I live, it's with very little. I spent a number of years of my life living out of a 34 liter sized backpack. Living minimally while making sure what I owned had meaning, purpose or intention transfered over to when I finally started settling into a certain location.

dogsnest ,
@dogsnest@lemmy.world avatar

Vinyl records....reprise!

Like holy fuck! I was buying that shit in the 60s, 70s, and 80s!!

Snap, crackle, pop, wow, flutter, echo, overruns, skips.....

tal ,
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

So, I am not a vinyl fan, and do not own any. And I agree that the "quality argument" about vinyl being analog and thus being higher fidelity is pretty senseless. But a couple of points:

Vinyl avoided the loudness war

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war

The loudness war (or loudness race) is a trend of increasing audio levels in recorded music, which reduces audio fidelity and—according to many critics—listener enjoyment. Increasing loudness was first reported as early as the 1940s, with respect to mastering practices for 7-inch singles.

Modern recordings that use extreme dynamic range compression and other measures to increase loudness therefore can sacrifice sound quality to loudness. The competitive escalation of loudness has led music fans and members of the musical press to refer to the affected albums as "victims of the loudness war".

Because of the limitations of the vinyl format, the ability to manipulate loudness was also limited. Attempts to achieve extreme loudness could render the medium unplayable. Digital media such as CDs remove these restrictions and as a result, increasing loudness levels have been a more severe issue in the CD era.

I'd guess that audio recorded with the expectation that it would be played on vinyl is probably optimized for that format

Same idea for old headphones or amplifiers or whatever. I don't know specifics.

LCD and LED displays, in 2024, are pretty much across-the-board better than CRTs in 1990. But a lot of old video game emulators try to reproduce artifacts that resulted from low display fidelity of CRTs. Scanlines. Blurriness. Blooming. Curvature of display. Even a bit of color fringing or the like. That's because the game was designed to be played on the system in question (or one closely approximating it). The art very frequently looks better, less jagged.

I have magnificent MIDI soundfonts that can make any MIDI audio played on my computer sound vastly more realistic than it does on old, 1990s computer synth hardware or on something like a Super Nintendo. But the music can sound much worse, because the artists were designing the soundtrack with an eye to making it sound pleasant on hardware that had the characteristics of the time.

Album art

Vinyl records were not very space efficient. But that meant that artists had a huge amount of space to create album artwork compared to CDs.

That's not something that I'm personally into, but some people really are.

Now, all the above being said, I don't own vinyl or a turntable and have no interest in ever getting one. But there are some arguments that I can understand for why people may prefer them.

ExtraMedicated ,

My boss is pushing the AI stuff pretty hard lately. I just want to write my own code.

dkc ,

AI for me as well. I’ve played with it a little and it’s kinda fun. Every company is pushing AI now including in areas where it doesn’t make any sense or is many years away from being useful. I’m also seeing a lot of developers being assigned to use AI without any directions on what to use it for.

I’m far enough along in my career I don’t need to worry about being replaced by AI. If it’s ever good enough to take my job I’ll be happily retired writing software for fun and living my life without AI. I just don’t have any interest.

Donjuanme ,

Whatever flash in the pan has "games" pissed off today.

They're easily outraged by any perceived slight, easily demonized/lionized by the media, often incredibly misguided, entirely without consideration for the bigger picture, and usually have 0 long-term impact follow-through or apology when whatever they were upset about gets rectified.

snownyte OP ,
@snownyte@kbin.social avatar

Sums them up quite nicely. To include, a lot of them have a poor grasp in how the business is handled in the industry. They just think that whatever game that only like, 15 people remember will make "loads of money" if it only got a remaster. Like come on, we've seen mini-consoles released, we've seen what gets decided to be remade. It is all based on what the IP originally brought to the company in the first place.

Gamers have been awfully spoiled in the past 14 years that only gamers 20 or more years ago would have loved to dine into. So many sales. So many opportunities. So much choice.

But no, let's throw all of that away because of a minor inconvenience or pretending to care about some game that they wouldn't have liked anyways but pretend to now like because of some political issue.

AgentGrimstone , (edited )

Having kids. We have zero desire to have kids so everyone can just stop trying to convince us.

AstralPath ,

Team sports and politics. Miss me with that shit. Its all so cult-y.

basilisa ,
@basilisa@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

TV.. Sports.. Celebrities.. Royal families... Pop culture in general

ThatWeirdGuy1001 ,
@ThatWeirdGuy1001@lemmy.world avatar

The whole shtick going on between men and women right now.

Between the bear and the tree I just want everyone to stfu and realize humans are shit get over it and move on with your small insignificant life.

bear ,

Most things. The world is a big place and I'm better off focusing on what's important to me.

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