i can just choose not to eat pineapple pizza and let other people eat whatever the hell they want.

If more of humanity could adopt this simple piece of philosophy, our entire civilization would be so much better off.

Regular entrepreneurship, sure.

Digital products, not so much. Down that route sits - for most products - three low costs: a computer, your time and effort, and a few bucks in hosting costs a month.

I’m not talking about creating another Facebook. That’s stupid.

I’m talking about identifying a really small service gap and punting something out that takes maybe a month of work (at most, the average should be a week for an experienced dev) but which can generate recurring income without any ongoing input from you. It’ll require hosting and a little upkeep as bugs and edge cases are identified, but that’s all of the ongoing costs.

This mantra of “bigger, dipshit, bigger” is what drives most projects into the ground. Think small, think limited in scope, think off the beaten path, think easy to build, think cheap to keep up and running, think too small for anyone else to bother becoming a competitor, think clear value for customers.

If you are wanting to turn this into a 50+ employee operation that makes you filthy fucking rich and where you can eventually sell it off to private equity for millions, you’ve got SFB. That’s not the point.

The point is to build something that will consistently earn you a living wage without you having to destroy your mind or body working like a dog all the time. It’ll be something that eventually winds down to a few hours a month in maintenance as decently non-trivial - for that time+effort - money continues to roll in

Who said anything about a startup?

Tech is one of those industries where one can stand up a digital product with almost no resources aside from time and effort, a computer, and maybe a few bucks in hosting per month.

And so what if a product gets you only a few hundred in recurring income per month… if you have a dozen or two wildly different ideas working for you, that adds up to several thousand a month.

If your job experience is anywhere near the digital field, look into satisfying a need by building a digital product that can earn money for you. Customers don’t care how old you are, they just want to span a needs gap with your product. Bonus if it solves a real business need, as companies can be much more open to spending obscene amounts to save a few pennies. Downside to this is you may have to rely on “spray and pray” - actively developing 10, 20, or even more ideas until either one in particular takes off or until the aggregate income across all is sufficient.

Edit: people, the digital field has the very lowest barrier to entrance other than ditch-diggers. All you need is a free, second-hand computer and a hosting package that costs a few bucks a month.

I’m not talking about firing up a 50+ person startup that makes you stupidly wealthy when it’s sold to private equity for millions. If this is what you thought, you’ve got SFB.

I’m talking about building a stable of 10-30 digital products that, over a year or three of steady visibility, each of them will eventually bring you in a few hundred to a thousand or two dollars of income per month on a consistent basis, especially if it’s a product that has a legitimate server/online component that demands an ongoing subscription.

Down that second path you have the opportunity to make a comfortable and very liveable wage by NOT putting all your eggs (effort, resources) into one bag, thereby diversifying your income in ways that doesn’t demand daily, ongoing, persistent labour.

Will it make you wealthy? Almost assuredly not. But it will put food on your table, a roof over your head, and give you a reasonably comfortable life without wearing the shackles of needing to be wildly profitable to someone else.

That’s… disgustingly impressive.

As a guy I would gladly high-five you for coming up with such a creatively practical solution, but you’re gonna have to wash your hands, first. Thoroughly.

And that is literally all what it is - a physical squeamishness. That’s it. And no, a firm, professional business handshake doesn’t trigger it.

And I see two people going nookie on each other, I’ll yell at them to get a room no matter what the combination. I don’t need to see your tentacle-tongues in action, much less anything more risqué.

The chance is there, but far too many of these kinds of people hate for life. Like toxic waste, they just get more and more vile with age.

Frankly, IIRC having a nonbinary daughter is what initially set her off. And if the estrangement of a child doesn’t bodily smack you across the face such that you reconsider your life choices, not much else ever will.

These are the kinds of people who make me actively cram down my own personal squeamishness surrounding the subject to actively try to be a better person towards trans and intergender people and anyone else who is non-binary.

Our civilization could be so much better without hate. Especially when it’s over variations of conception or development. People can’t do a damn thing about it – as an AuDHD person myself, I know. I wish there was a pill that could utterly eliminate all symptoms of my ADD, but there isn’t.

Sometimes a dimensional drain installed into the bladder - something that burrows through a higher dimension and into a sanitary disposal somewhere else - would be nice.

I mean, I don’t drink like a fish or anything, but full bladders can be more abruptly insistent than most anything else.

I’m just waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Wait until 2027, when we start seeing widespread crop failures due to lack of fertilizer.

A majority of the base components for most fertilizers come through the Strait of Hormuz, from Iran. Industrialized agriculture absolutely depends on these fertilizers because topsoil has been almost completely exhausted. These base components need to be available many months before they are needed, because production is slow. Because the Strait is still closed, up to 60% of all northern-hemisphere non-orchard/non-perennial agriculture may be impacted.

If you can prep for a garden for next year, like bringing in manure and bedding materials, I would start now. Choose easy to grow crops next spring that are filling, like zucchini, tomatoes, and other gourds that can keep well into the winter. Try stocking up on staples (beans, lentils, white rice, etc.) that can hold for a long time at room temperatures, and store them in pest-resistent pails. Look into water bath canning, even two dozen jars of tomato pureé can last most of a winter and be used in many dishes. Understand that a decent chunk of veggies need to be pressure canned due to lack of acidity. Follow best practices when canning, you cannot smell or taste botulism and it kills very readily

You’re welcome.

Detective Lucas Heck proceeded with charges despite knowing that Lipps lived in Tennessee, had never visited North Dakota, did not match the physical description of the suspect captured on surveillance footage, and had no unexplained funds linking her to the thefts.

Wow, ACAB. How wildly incompetent are they?

So long as healthcare continues to be tied to employment via health insurance, far too many Americans will remain far too terrified to rock the boat.