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Joined 10 days ago
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Cake day: October 24th, 2026

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  • Gulliver’s Travels brings up a similar idea all the way back in the 18th century. I’m too lazy to look up names, but one country has a small population of immortals who are legally declared dead at 80 so they can’t monopolize power.

    I feel like this is a good worldbuilding exercise to bring up over on /c/worldbuilding. One of my fictional polities had a wealth cap that funded local municipal improvements. But they always seemed to fund lovely parks conveniently close to the taxed person’s neighborhood and never, say, public transit expansions.







  • Then you get the folks coming out of the woodwork going “herp derp it’s really simple, you just have to buy a domain, then set up all these records, then you line up all eleven chaos crystals on the altar of despair and chant the forbidden words, then you…”

    I think saying “It’s really simple” is actually terrible from a pedagogical point of view. It just makes the learner go “Well I guess I’m dumb because I don’t get such a simple concept.” I get people saying this are trying to be reassuring, but it should be remembered that pretty much anything is simple if you do it a million times. I’m sure brain surgery is simple for a brain surgeon, but I’m not a brain surgeon. I think it’s better to say "This is a long process with a lot of moving parts, but let’s take a breath and tackle it one step at a time and we’ll get through it. Sorry not ranting at OP, I just see this attitude all the time in IT and it bugs me.

    I career changed into IT years after college, so I was already an adult when I entered my first trembling keystrokes into a blank terminal window. I vividly remember how intimidating it all felt.