Michael569

@Emotionalmosquito if you close your eyes for a few minutes and switch off your "money filter" what do you hear? What sort of direction calls you in life? Does any type of living beckon more than another? Getting laid and making cash is nice but in the grand scheme of things it will never satisfy you. You'll always be looking beyond. Instead of thinking of ways to grab quick buck, consider ways you would need to navigate the next 10 years to start heading towards the life you want. Practically speaking you may need to get a 9-5 to acquire the initial capital to then invest in your training while you transition to the thing that's most meaningful to you. That's how many people go about it.

@Majed You could have ended it here instead of going for the unnecessary rant. Sounds like you're trying to escape some tormenting inner struggle by convincing the rest of us to believe you. By are you yourself convinced that what you say is what you really believe? Are you having second thoughts. Or do you simply enjoy stirring drama on the forum? Nothing wrong with that, we all do to a degree .

Yeah totally doable for a side income although it takes a lot of manual work updating listings regularly and storing the Items My wife has a side hussle of reselling second hand clothes online and on good months she can make some decent money although not all months are great. But it takes long hours repairing, tailoring, taking pictures in good lighting. Then you have people constantly negotiating prices giving you ridiculous offers. She enjoys it because she likes fashion and gets to source some really amazing vintage pieces but as a sole income it just barely covers her main monthly expenses so it can be hard to scale into something bigger. Depends on what you sell also. The competition nowadays is pretty huge too so if it is something you genuinely are passionate about or a niche are where you go out of your way to source things, that could potentially work.

It is unlikely that a single book will revolutionize your whole life. Think about each book as a small piece of jigsaw that you put in place to help you on your path. Mastery is just one small piece, one small realization. Just like reading about body language is a piece of puzzle or reading about spiral dynamics. They help you navigate the world a bit better in different situations but none of them are manuals to live by. Together, all of them can become somewhat of a map & compass combined with other resources and your wisdom and life experience

I'm a believer of taking time to find the right mentor / coach to resonate with you. I have a personal thing against hyped up self development celebrities "coaching" millions of people. It is nice on the surface but there is no deep work. My advice would be to go beyond flashy adds and websites and speak to a bunch of people you find through google maps or tailored google search. I'm a health therapist, I don't think my services would be appropriate for this context. it is a hard balance to strike and eventually you have to market yourself to a specific type of client or specific type of problem or a segment of clients rather than just be "life coach" or something that generic. You need to be mindful of what are you trained to do and what are you legally allowed to do as well. You also need to be able to recognize red flags and be able to refer certain types of clients which you are not trained to work with

yeah, that is unfortunately how it happens. Every time you are buying group sessions with someone it will almost in 100% cases be wasted money because people keep interrupting, showing off, asking unnecessary questions, there are technical issues on and on and on. The only way I found to get a working mentoring /coaching that will actually give results: buy a program someone has pre-recorded and watch it on your own time without deadline or time restriction. Ideally the course is also assigning you tasks to do or at least incentivising you to think deeper rather than just go through sessions. buy one to ones where the entire session it is just you and them and where each session has a tangible follow up, like homework or tasks you have been assigned. Also it needs to be regular and consistent plan so that you are motivated to continue and there is an existing accountability. A no bullshit mentor will be able to capatult your growth in this way and save you years of going down wrong ends. Everything else, all the seminars and group sessions is mostly cash grab and you'll have to suffer through endless adds and bs without learning anything. A course provider that still forces you to sit through more courses adds is a major red flag. Does not matter who leads those courses, they can be the greatest self help guru if there is 100 of you going through the course, it is a lost cause. Also a coaching program shouldn't be costing you thousands of dollars for a few weeks of work. Even in America, the average cost of session shouldn't exceed 250 dollars, unless they are some kind of high profile CEO/executive coach with 20 years of experience and executive coaching is their USP. Lot of these young coaches are just charging unethical amount of money because they are good in marketing their course to young men on Instagram and have got greedy. Their clients are people who often don't have lot of money to begin with and they end up stretching their finances to the limit to pay for something that often doesn't work. They should also be offering you the option to pay instalments. So no, a 3 grand 4 week course is probably not worth it, especially if you don't even get a private session. What you want is more like 12 months of weekly sessions for , say, 350-650 a month. That would be more likely down an alley of someone who actually cares enough not to try to squeeze you our of every cent yet is still invested in helping you.

@Majed what would be the first step to take for you to be able to move to Beirut? Are there jobs you could start applying for? Once you have an income, finding a cheap shared apartment is the next step. Car and all of that comes secondary. For now forget about the game and dating The primary goal is to get yourself to a city with opportunities. Alternatively could you potentially look for jobs in Turkey or Egypt?

Make your CV achievement focused rather than an accumulation of endless bullet points glorifying every aspect of your personality, recruiters hate that because those are indistinguishable from eachother Think about major projects you worked on and where you could tie those to what the new role requires Specific deliverables , what exactly were the outcomes you achieved On what way did you contribute to the goal of the project ? In what ways did you have to demonstrate creativity and problem solving. Who did you support? Do you or did you consult often other people with your expertise. Basically what makes you stand out. The white collar market is changing. Heavily operational roles that AI can do will soon be replaced. Take ownership of your career and present yourself as someone who you yourself would hire, if you were the owner. Show them you care Demonstrate that YOU are the best fit Demonstrate your passion for what you do and if you don't have it, try to think of ways to kindle it because that's what they want to see. Hope that helps

I saw a girl in my gym scraping her face with one of those Gua-Sha stones while sweating in a Finnish Sauna. I can't tell whether there is something to it but might help open up skin pores and maybe help move lymph around which is the main channel through which skin "detoxifies" although I'm super hesitant to use that word because the only things that detoxifies is the liver, everything else just moves stuff around. Still, I'd say for skin health a combination: hydration, balanced nutrition management of sun exposure / UVB protection stress & sleep regulation minimising pollutant exposure (and cleansing face after a long day out) regular sweating through a combination of HIIT training or Sauna (or both if you have one of those gyms with wellness A good quality moisturiser is also worth considering, ideally something with vitamin E content and without lots of chemicals

Glad you found something that works for you. Keto can definitely work for lot of people especially where you're replacing refined carbohydrates like pastries and sweets with wholefoods. As long as you're still eating enough fibre and antioxidants, you should be fine. Happy experimenting!

"No ingredient of cigarette smoke has been shown to cause human lung cancer. No-one has been able to produce lung cancer in laboratory animals from smoking" This is actually true, it has technically never been proven that smoking causes lung cancer because designing clinical trials trying to give people lung cancer by smoking would be unethical. We know from epidemiology (observing people who smoke without interfering) that smokers are "more likely" to develop it but epidemiology cannot infer causality so technically science has never been able to prove that smoking causes cancer. The black lung part is also really interesting, I didn't know about that. Overall, the first part of the article is actually pretty interesting and he/she is spot on on the problem with confounding variables and impossibility of assessing the cancer outcome with smoking. The bit about inflammatory bowel disease is also interesting, I've heard about this line of evidence and would be really curious to know more and whether this has been repeated. Maybe IBD and smoking are kinda like obesity protecting from osteoporosis because heavier body has thicker bones but it would be stretching the evidence to say "being obese is good for you". And maybe smoking does really do something beneficial for IBD, who knows. The problem is IBD is treatable, lung cancer is much harder to get under control. Later the article delves into an endless mechanistic speculation on different neurochemicals and antioxidants, bridging speculation from in vitro studies into human outcomes data (extremely frowned upon way of presenting evidence). For example, take this statement : Interestingly, smokers' lungs have been found to contain 80% more glutathione than the lungs of non-smokers. From this the author concluded that smoking is positive. How do we know it is not the opposite way, smokers having increased glutathione because body is pushing more resources into protecting itself from excessive oxidative stress. Author claims that levels of glutathione were increased up to 2 months after. Again, how to we know this is a good thing and not a sign of severe metabolic stress? The author repeats this thinking process with the other antioxidants and the hormesis theory. The article concludes with giving examples of a few random centenarians who smoke which is an extremely poor and unprofessional way to present the evidence because you can find outliers everywhere that seem to contradict everything you've always known about XYZ topic. Existence of outliers does not negate the original hypothesis (hypothesis being that smoking is probably harmful) Maybe smoking really does have some potential benefits coming from the niccotine itself for mental health, ADHD and attention overall but the inhalation of hydrocarbon particles, tar and solvents might become dangerous for some people. It might come to individual resilience why some are ok and others are not (available pool of anitoxidants, the effectiveness of DNA repair, variety of detoxification pathways in the liver clearing our hydrocarbons, repair of tissue, the availability of certain protective resources, the regulation of the immune system etc) and it is true that most smokers do not get sick. But this doesn't mean smoking is safe or beneficial which is what it seems is the conclusion this article is heading towards. It is the seed oils & oxidation or cholesterol and heart disease once again, different topic same framework of counter argumentation. Basically bridging gaps in knowledge with pseudoscience. The article lists all of its references which is amazing and I love that they've done that but when you look deeper, most of them are in vitro and in vivo. That's not a problem in and of itself but there is not a single reference to systematic review or meta analyses. When trying to challenge the narrative on something as significant as health effects of smoking, you can't do that on the basis of in vitro studies. In a topic with so much potential for harm, this article is potentially not just misleading and contributing to confusion but almost borderline unethical with the way arguments are being presented, despite appearing extremely well presented.

Have doctors given you antibiotics for influenza? (flu virus). A bit uncommon but maybe a safety precaution against wider opportunistic bacterial infections Infections do not spread like that unless the body is severely immunocompromised but you wouldn't expect to find viruses in cerebrospinal fluid affecting spinal column and brain. The backpain might simply be a common symptom of flu (join pain & stiffness). Give it more time, take it easy and it'll heal on its own

I got married last year to a girl I've dated for 14 years. It was the best day of my life and one of the best decision I've ever made. I love being married and would never go back Technically, day to day things are exactly the same as they were before yer deep down i feel something has changed, energetically, spiritually...hard to put my finger on what it is. Pragmatically speaking if you want kids you should be married, it is better for them, gives a sense of stability and familiarity. Things are harder to just terminate and you feel you have to try to mend things rather than discard the other person. I think being married also teaches you a deep sense of loyalty (not always) and commitment to another human being. But there are tons of counterarguments where people who were completely incompatible got married too quickly and it was a disaster, we all know few of those couples. So there is no universal answer. If you love the person you're with and you feel they help you be a better person and you can grow with each other and be your true self with them...marry them. Or don't

@The Caretaker yeah, having someone constantly give you critical (but useful ) feedback is a brutal experience but great way to learn ro receive feedback without going on defense. I found if that happens often enough you actually, in some weird masochist way, start craving more of it because you notice how much it helps you grow and learn.

Deeper reflections, like asking those probing questions about life and existence that you feel no humans can answer for you or you just don't feel brave enough (or being vulnerable enough) to ask those to someone else. It helps me think outside of the box and get a completely new perspective on things. Sometimes I feel like that kid asking "but why" 100 times in a row until the parent gets mad and leaves the room. GPT doesn't Sometimes the way it says things gives me goosebumps because it can beautifully hit the things within that are there but I often feel I lack vocabulary or knowledge to verbalise. I also love to use it for storytelling when I travel or explore. It helps me connect the place where I am to its history and almost to become part of it. When we were in Mexico I had GPT generate a whole page on what it it was like to be an Ancient Aztec about to be led to an alter to be sacrificed to the gods and when I was reading that story aloud to our friends while sitting on the steps of Monte Alban's largest temple and looking at the valley slowly being covered by the golden light of the sundown, I felt incredibly connected to that place. That moment became s much more magical, it is hard to explain. And then general stuff I used to ask Google. What I am missing is being challenged more by AI so in that sense AI makes for a terrible mentor because even when you tell it to, it is still being too nice and polite. A good mentor will call you out on your bullshit 10 out of 10 times.

I hope you're never planning for a family and marriage with this life rule 😄😄 @sda everything is situational and everything depends. It does sound like your dad is supporting his sibling's family a bit excessively, same with your friend's situation. There is nothing wrong with temporarily helping someone get back on his feet like a redundant family member or someone in dire need of small loan. But you have to balance the niceness with being taken advantage of or being leeched by someone who is narcissistic enough to not be able to see they are using you

Give your body some time to fight the infection, there is not much interference needed. Of course do the usual like warm teas and staying well hydrated, eating light, getting some fresh air and sleeping a lot but other than that let your immune system recover do what it was designed to do by hundreds of thousands of years of evolution Many "magic pill solutions" might just numb immune response or waste your money. I do agree with @Norbert Somogyi that over long term checking and optimizing your vit D levels is a great idea.

That's a really interesting observation. You could think about it from a perspective of "what makes you trust other people". Like what is the defining difference between someone you know you can trust and someone you know you can't. I'd say it is a combination of factors main one being 'evidence of past actions'. If someone consistently delivers on their promise, you learn that person can be trusted. On the other hand, we all know someone who never does what they promise to do. Your mind works the same way. You can only begin trusting yourself if you give yourself sufficient evidence that you can be relied upon by yourself. So each time you promise to yourself , for example, "I'l start XYZ tomorrow" and you don't, your brain loses trust in your ability to be relied upon. And each time you deliver on that, the self trust is strengthened. You start by taking your own commitments to yourself seriously. You don't squander these promises the way it is often being done by many people (I'll start losing weight tomorrow, I'll start eating healthy next month, I'll do this and that....and then nothing, year after year, promise after promise broken). Each broken promise impacts the executive function of your brain, you learn that promises are there to be broken. Its kinda like squandering your attention watching reels and then wondering why you can't read a single book in a year....deep neurological adaptation has happened And one way to start reversing that is not to overpromise if you know you struggle with the delivery. So you make fewer promises to yourself but the ones you do, you do your best to deliver. And so your brain starts trusting you, the parts of your brain responsible for wilful commitment strengthen, overtime resistance to take action diminishes and things become easier to do. The second part of this is a bit deeper and it is "why do you struggle to deliver" and it might be that the things you are trying to do are in misalignment with your guiding principles. If you value freedom & creativity while struggling to complete an 8-hour manual excel spreadsheet report that kills creativity and freedome, maybe the problem is that you're in the wrong job. So it is important to be mindful of that. Because when you do things that match your guiding principles and values and things you find meaningful, your brain will reward you with dopamine while pursuing these and it will be much easier to commit. That being said, it is still normal to struggle even with things you find meaningful..we all do. Hope that helps

yeah, I think the door to door salesmanship has gradually been dying since early 20s and is possibly completely dead by now. In Europe it doesn't even happen that much anymore although my mom who lives back in eastern Europe says she still gets these people selling cleaning utensils, kitchen electronics and stuff like that. I think they choose to target villages with older population nowadays because young people can't be bothered. I think there is also a general perception of distrust hanging in the air since covid. People distrusting each other much more than before, especially when a stranger comes knocking on your door. Could you instead aspire for an inhouse sales role in a company? Like corporate sales etc.

@The Caretaker i found that incorporating about 25 minutes of Zone 3 HIIT about 3 times a week gives me even better results in improving total stamina. And by far, the best results came from incorporating uphill exercises l. I used to do these hill sprints combined with running up and down small hills when I lived in Wales and within 6 months my V02 max went from 47 to 53. I haven't been able to make it pass 51 no matter what I do anymore as i don't have hills to train at where i live now. Maybe my age is becoming a factor as well 😄 But if you do live in a country side with some terrain variety, that could be an option.

I do agree with, as you increase intensity, things like cardiorespiratory fitness and grip strength being the limitation rather than the strength itself. It is a really common thing especially where guys don't spend enough time training those things or they increase weights too quickly for the rest of the body to catch up such as when using creatine or other substances that boost maximum power and strength. And the more heavy barbell exercises you do, the more insufficient cardiorespiratory fitness becomes apparent. Grip strength as well for heavy lifts like deadlift and pullups. Not to mention core strength. The solution could be to temporarily moving some of your training towards HIIT, swimming, running etc. Not sure about once per week. It sounds compelling but might be insufficient to stimulate your endocrine system enough. 3 times a week doing heavy weights would be more realistic, we had a big discussion about that about a year ago in one of the old threads

@Leo Gura where would you like to see the future of the series?

Looks pretty good. Technically still the same game and I don't know if I'd care too much about going back, becoming the arena champion, closing the demon gates and all that, I've lived that story once and it was enough. Elder Scrolls needs a step up from being this dungeon crawler / city crawler game. I don't know what the next thing would be but it is an overused pattern at this stage. If one day Morowind and Kingdom Come 2 could have a love child, that would be the game that changes a history.

Dude, you're showing some serious misunderstanding of what it feels like to be a woman in 2025. I think you've probably had some bad luck with pickup, my heart goes out to you if that's the case, it is not an easy thing to do these days. But saying all women think about is meeting their needs? Women are able, for the first time in history to make a conscious decision whether they want to have career and a purpose that goes beyond child care and the traditional 'housewife' duties. Sure there were women in the past who were extraordinarily successful but in the world dominated by men, it was more of an exception than a rule. So she knows she can become as successful, as educated, as wealthy and as accomplished as a man. But she also knows that it is her body, not man's, that needs to bear the burden of pregnancy. So while she is trying to figure our her space in the job market, she feels that she can't go all in, because her body is running on a time clock. She knows that if she is not successful finding the right man who would want to father her children and be able to take care of her while she is at her most vulnerable (pregnancy and post partum), she chooses to wait. And so she waits and her clock is ticking while she sees her friends getting married and having kids. On one hand because she is not going all in, she feels that her career is not getting her full attention and so she puts more energy into it. When she does that, she is reminded that she is a "ball buster" who wants to "take over the world" and she should be at home having kids. So she feels guilty and slides back into dating which goes on and on and on. The men she meets are immature, all about sex, unlear about their values and directions and she thinks "I'll have one todler, I don't need another one"..and so she waits and waits. And when she does get married and has a baby, she feels guilty about putting her career on hold, worried that she won't be able to get back to the market, feels like she is losing time. And that's just the surface level of worries among other things like the shape of her body, her age, her competition with other moms, her security in relationship with her man, the running of entire household, being the emotional cushion for her husband, being able to satisfy her husband needs ...and so on and so on. So no, women's life are a bit more complicated and they sometimes face more challenges than men. Hope you'll be able to see it one day

I agree with the points you made and perhaps the point I made about dismissing crypto currency with a wave of a hand was too hasty...seems like that was probably the case. Yet I can't help but agree with this in two ways: Yes, US government is going big on crypto but not in a good way. You saw what happened with Trump Coins. I'm sure that was an extreme example but a system that allows someone to almost become overnight the richest person in the world seems quite unstable and prone to major corruption to me the notion of "benefiting from the chaos" indicates to what I said before that crypto is potentially unholistic and it hurst the system because it is mainly about wanting something for nothing and wanting to profit of other people's loss.