The Open Thread is a place for open discussion among my readers. Post anything you feel like sharing! From now on, the Open Thread will no longer be monthly. Instead, there will be a new Open Thread whenever it is adequate. The stage is yours. Go ahead!
The latest Open Thread is made ‘sticky’ to improve access.
Please consider throwing a few coins into the tip jar, and buy my books! They are great. Your support is greatly appreciated.
Does anyone of you self-quarantine? If so, how do you pass your time?
Aside from people panicking and buying everything, my life is the same so far. I do the same stuff. I have a rack and weights in the basement, I write and record music, game, scroll through my youtube feed, and have a bunch of books I’ve been meaning to read so I’m not really hurting from boredom. They did close the local park that’s 2 mins from my place, however, so that is kind of annoying.
I’m now starting to run low on groceries but haven’t had to dip into my food stock yet. I’m debating whether or not to go out early in the morning and see how the crowds are. It certainly isn’t as bad here as in the city. I’d say it’s probably relatively serene actually.
Another thing that takes up a bit of time for me is cooking. I don’t usually eat bread because most of it on the shelf is crap, but I have stocked up on high quality flour and yeast. Just need to use a bit of salt, sweetener, water and oil to make a super cheap loaf of bread lol. It will be nice to have something to go with all the beans and canned crap.
What have you been doing?
It seems you’re really well set up. Can you get groceries delivered to your door? In some parts of Europe this is available, with reasonably competitive pricing. One of the major players of this domain delivers to your door for free if your order amounts to the equivalent of around $80 and the various items are priced comparably to a mid-end supermarket. I still go out and buy groceries myself, either in the early morning or in the evening when there is a lot less foot traffic.
I’ve been going through my enormous backlog of books, movies, YouTube videos, and games, in addition to doing some writing. Gyms are closed in my country these days, so I’m back to doing bodyweight exercises. I derived a workout routine from Ashtanga yoga, basically removing the b.s. and turning up the intensity.
I’ve been doing good. As Pickernanny stated, “…I’m not really hurting from boredom”. I have been doing a lot of reading since the gym is closed. I have managed to read all your articles in this blog. At the rate I’m reading I predict I will be done with all your articles by the end of next month. In addition, I do a lot of running if you recall, I run and train for marathons. In addition, I’m blessed that I still work. My job is recession proof since I work with the Federal Gov. The agency I work at is different from other departments.
On other news, Los Angeles County of Health and Service issued curfew directive to all residents who reside in LA County. LA County residents are starting to adopt and enjoy the introduction of Socialism. Very few people complaining. There goes our civil liberties.
https://la.curbed.com/2020/3/12/21177242/coronavirus-los-angeles-covid19-shutdown-curfew
http://file.lacounty.gov/SDSInter/lac/1070029_COVID-19_SaferAtHome_HealthOfficerOrder_20200319_Signed.pdf?fbclid=IwAR0IG160WVYNhP_jcsZRLWzU2Xxrx8ZJyASMvM2Ignih7PGnRfOPDKbI0UE
No, grocery delivery isn’t an option here, but supposedly they can be ordered for pickup so that might be a good idea. Btw, it seems traffic on the blog in terms of comments have taken a sharp dive recently. I would have figured more of us would be here detailing their personal experiences. I’d definitely be interested in hearing more about how everyone is fairing, and what people’s opinions are concerning certain circumstances.
Looking forward to your write up on the alternate site. Take care.
Traffic to the blog has taken a sharp downturn recently. It could be due to Google penalizing sites that mention Covid-19. It is known that this is the case on YouTube, which is owned by Google. Or maybe people think that they have more important things to worry about than pussy for the time being.
I had to self-quarantine because I was in Italy and it is a requirement of Czech Republic where I am living now. I am mostly reading books and learning new languages and programming languages. I can say the harder part is not be segregated at home 24 hours but be distracted by the bullshit news and facebook comments. The level of authoritarianism between the people comments scare me more then the government crazy ideas I read like monitoring the movement of people through cell phone.
@Pickernanny
If bread baking is something you want to pursue a bit more seriously, you can check out Ken Forkish’s book Flour Water Salt Yeast about how to bake French-style bread at home. He explains how to manipulate the different ingredients as well as use time as a variable. I’ve not had the time and energy to try any of his recipes myself, but one day in the distant future I will!
I assume you meant to write “one day in the not-too-distant future”. 😉
@Sleazy’ Wife
Here is the simple stupid recipe we used in France, when I did my apprenticeship there:
(after 10 years I still remember it by heart and I can still remember the alcohol like smell in the morning)
1kg flour
550ml Water
20gr sugar
20gr salt
20gr yeast
Mix it all, let it stay in the fridge over night, covered.
Take it out, put it in whatever shape you want to put it, let it rest at room temperature, covered for 1-2 hours.
230 degrees Celcius in the oven, add vapor (if you can)
Open the door after 5 mins to let the vapor out.
Finish up with another 5-10 mins, depending on the size.
That’s it
So, we work from home now. Got a lot to do and needless to say our clients are pretty much in panic.
That being said, our multi-asset managers have shifted their equity weights back to pre-crisis a few days ago.
Stocked up on a few things already a year back and added some more heavy artillery type of prepper stuff just recently.
It’s not a self quarantine per se, but de facto I’m not leaving the house much either, other than for a walk in the evening. We might lose that right, too soon though.
I guess my tin foil hat buddies and I are waiting for the internet to get shut down. This is the signal to bug out into the mountains.
@Neutral
How did you end up doing this apprenticeship in France, and was it related to your work in a hotel which you’ve mentioned before? How did you then make the change from that to working in finance in Switzerland today? Your life story just seems very interesting. Not that Aaron has divulged any details from your calls with him; I’m a lurker here and take note of most of the comments 🙂
I’m home. Fasting and watching conspiracy videos on youtube.
There is a channel: A call for an uprising
@Sleazy’s Wife
“How did you end up doing this apprenticeship in France, and was it related to your work in a hotel which you’ve mentioned before? How did you then make the change from that to working in finance in Switzerland today?”
Ouh, long story, hahaha 😊
So, back in 2008, before the summer holidays before my 13th school year, I stirred up things a bit at home and told my mum that I’d quit school just before getting my Abitur if she didn’t find a solution for me living elsewhere than with her, since I just couldn’t do it any longer. Well, it was quite the bluff, but I ended up living with my step dad, who had always kept his apartment.
Anyway, there I did my last school year and indeed I got a bit more freedom from my helicopter mum and could focus on what my heart tells me. Turns out I really like cooking. Now, through an acquaintance, I learned that the Dresden’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) has an agreement with Strasbourg’s CCI, where Strasbourg takes young people who were willing to go to France and do the apprenticeship there. There were a few benefits, notabene the apprenticeship pay (higher than in Germany), the length of the apprenticeship (two years in FR vs. three in DE) and the employers who did actually agree to work with foreigners would give you a place to stay.
So, I did the interviews, they accepted me and then I pretty much packed my two bags and a backpack and literally two days after I was handed my Abitur, I left Munich at night, leaving a nasty note.
I started school then in Strasbourg and the restaurant I worked in was in Séléstat, 60km away from Strasbourg. Anyway, I brushed up on my French, changed restaurants, got kicked out from another one, learned a lot about life and work and finally, after two years got my diploma.
I realized that working in a kitchen is not that glamorous so I leveraged my Abitur and went into hotel management, enrolled into another two-year apprenticeship, offered by the same school. Went to work for a hotel, this time in Strasbourg, so I moved there. After two years, there was an opportunity to go and work in Lausanne, Switzerland and I did that – packed my things and went there.
We’re talking summer/autumn 2013 now and I was starting to be a regular reader of Aaron’s blog and bought Minimal Game.
As the hotel stuff is pretty outgoing, I met this one girl in a club, which plays no music after 1980. (Fun note, one FX trader from Citibank I got to know called the place “stop loss”, because if you don’t get any action all night at any bar/club you’ve been, you go to this place. And if there you get no action either, you go home^^). So, she was working at Credit Suisse and was in IT, which is one of the worst paid departments in a bank. Turns out she was making more money than me working in a hotel and she had her week-ends off. Something was wrong here and I did start to have family plans (in general, not with her, although she did have some with me – well… her clock was ticking. She was 28 and I was 23, so…) and basically, I realized that having kids and only 3500 Franks per month and about 6 week-ends off per year wouldn’t really do the trick.
Credit Suisse did have apprenticeship programs which lasted 3×6 months and paid below what I was making at the hotel but there was a chance of then getting a job that made me 1.5-2x what I was making at the hotel after those 18 months. Unfortunately, Credit Suisse refused me, because I already had two apprenticeships behind me. A bit disgruntled from all this, I kept working, and one day, one of the man UBS employees checks in (I can tell because of their corporate credit cards) and I start chatting with him. I ask him how UBS is doing and if they do this internship program like Credit Suisse. Turns out they have the exact same thing, but they don’t care about previous apprenticeships. Same conditions, same pay. Now, mind you, this guy is one of back then 60’000 UBS employees world-wide, so it was quite something that he knew such HR related details. At the end of our chat I ask him for his business card and he literally gives me his last one. I throw it in my drawer and don’t look at it much. Later that night, when I count my cash, I pick it up.
I shit you not, it says: Dr so-and-so, General Managing Director, Human Resources, Young Talents
I’m like… “Jackpot!”
So, I basically wrote him, and a bit later got in contact with his assistant. I put through my documents, went to the interviews with like 120 others and they gave 80 of us the internship. I moved to Zürich, started the 18 months internship, learned a ton in three different departments (Trade Export Finance, Private Banking and Investment Funds Product Specialists) and then they kept me in my last rotation. I did so well there that when they hired me as a professional, they paid me above the recommended range, promoted me within a year. As we were in investment funds sales and after sales, I got to know many third-party asset management providers, one of which I am working for now. Needless to say, a not insignificant pay increase came with that.
So, that’s how it went down.
@Sleazy’s Wife
Thanks for the recommendation. I will look into it. The few times I’ve tried it in the past I ended up with a really dense type of bread. It was fine enough to eat, I guess, but it just didn’t stack up to the really fluffy kind that others have made for me.
Btw, I have made really tasty egg noodles and pizza crust from scratch before. They were comparatively much easier to pull off.
@Neutral
That’s one cool story. I hope your future wife will be able to live up to your presumably high standards when it comes to home cooking :p
How accepting would you say Western European countries are to people who want to change career paths the way you did? From service jobs and lower-paying work to a white collar industry.
@Sleazy’s Wife
“I hope your future wife will be able to live up to your presumably high standards when it comes to home cooking :p ”
Ha! They aren’t that high, trust me. I’m a simpleton when it comes to cooking. And I eat mostly what would be deemed a carnivore diet, so not much fluff either. My girlfriend (read: future wife) is more on the veggies side of things, so everybody cooks for himself. Might sound weird, but it works for us 🙂
“How accepting would you say Western European countries are to people who want to change career paths the way you did? From service jobs and lower-paying work to a white collar industry.”
Hm, so… I can only speak for Switzerland and the country is pretty well know for its permeability. It’s not uncommon for people to switch lanes while they are doing their education and the apprenticeship/trades culture is strong here. It’s also quite respected if you say that you are an apprentice.
“Lateral entrants” (google translate says that that’s English for “Quereinsteiger”) like me would probably be more the exception. That being said, at the time, UBS specifically did have the policy to look for such lateral entrants. They did realize that people can actually “import” their skill form another industry and apply it to banking.
Now, does that mean, a plumber can start working for an insurance? I guess he could, if he did some certifications, which (and I think that’s the major point) are well “constructed”, meaning that the theoretical part can be done while working and employers in Switzerland do seem keen to sponsor people who show dedication and want to put in the effort to get the necessary certification(s).
Your question is a very interesting one, as I’ve been wondering how much of my path can be attributed to luck, skill and simply system-setup. I guess its a healthy mix, skewed a bit to the “luck” side, in my case. That being said, it takes balls to seize the opportunity. I don’t want to take too much credit though. I don’t think I could’ve pulled this off in Germany.
Then, there is the fact that you have a different story to tell when you sit at an interview. Your CV just stands apart. Now, some skills you must bring to the table, but at least in the services industry, how you come across and how you present yourself do play an important role. And I think over the years I did learn how to position myself as someone with charm, empathy and intellect. Again, don’t want to take too much credit, just saying that it’s a lot of case-by-case.
Thanks for that question, it was interesting for me to reflect on all that.
You did very well for yourself. I agree that this would have been a lot more difficult, if not impossible, in Germany. There, changing careers is a stigma. Furthermore, I have the impression that the German ‘Ausbilding’ (traineeship) is not nearly as well-regarded as the corresponding Swiss scheme. A giveaway is that those schemes can be 3 to 3.5 years long while the skills you learn could easily be taught in half a year or so. Apprentices are simply used as cheap labor. There are industries that are infamous for hiring a lot of trainees but hardly retaining any of them after completion of their training.
@Aaron
Thanks, man – appreciate your words.
Re the industries with lots of trainees and a quasi zero retention rate: Hospitality is one of them, with high-class restaurants/hotels being the exception.
Excluding the owners (husband & wife) of the restaurant I worked last in, we had two professional waiters plus four apprentices (waiters) and two professional cooks and three apprentices (cooks). Given how much I had to hear stories about how tough it was and how tight money was sitting for the owners (bullshit – big house, big cars, horses, guns and what not) we can credibly make the case that if eleven fulltime employees need to be paid at a rate of EUR 2’500, i.e. EUR 27’500 per month, their restaurant would hardly thrive the way it did with only four fully paid ones plus the seven apprentices at an average rate of EUR 700 (I’m being generous here, it’s probably more like EUR 450, if you take only younger ones).
The difference in cost can conservatively be estimated at about EUR 12.6k per month.
This adds up. And, we’re not even talking about the fact that apprentices are worth shit and you can let them do all the dirty tasks. I’m pretty convinced, that I worked more than my chef, I don’t think he put in the 60h work weeks I did. And if he did, he didn’t do the hard work. Now, to be fair, you need some one who keeps the kitchen running and shout and scream – it’s too chaotic otherwise, and that person cannot be occupied with cutting onions. But still, this son of a bitch never cleaned up his fucking mess.
So if anyone thinks that Gordon Ramsey is exaggerating in his TV show, let me say that he isn’t. Not a tiny little bit. It really goes down like this. I had my chef stab a fork into my hand, because I placed some vegetable in the wrong place on the plate for the second time.
Can’t sue the bastard, because he’s paying your bills and your rent is like 50% of your salary and your credit card is overdrawn like there’s no tomorrow.
So when I read of some sexual harassment complaints in the corporate/white-collar world, I always have to laugh. The shit we threw at our waitresses (sometimes literally) would make the toughest HR ditz go cry in the bathroom for a few hours.
Can’t say if the kitchen was the worst or the best time in my life. Probably a bit of both, lol.
We’re under a fake lock down using the honor code. Nothing has changed outside of almost every business being closed. Fully stocked up on groceries, supplies, and even face masks. I knew this was coming, so I got ahead of the curve a month or so ago. Huge backlog of videogames, books, and movies. Only difference is that I no longer go out to eat.
Regarding Covid-19: I’ll probably write a longer article on it for my other blog, but in short, I think this is all massively overblown. The virus kills the old and infirm and the death rate is quite modest. It’s nothing compared to how many whites are the victims of black-on-white crime or the number of people who get shot dead in the US every year, so why is Covid-19 such an issue but not rampant crime and violence? You can bet that all the illegal immigrants in the US will kill more people this year than Covid-19, and have for decades, and that’s totally fine, too. If there wasn’t a presidential election upcoming, the media wouldn’t stoke such a frenzy.
That being said, the herd has gone bonkers, so I hope you all have food and supplies for a few weeks at home, and if you have some cash, now is a good time to buy assets at a nice discount as the market is overreacting. I wouldn’t be surprised if those who shall not be named are now crashing the market to sweep up assets for pennies on the dollar. It wouldn’t be the first time.
Interesting how it went from “no big deal”, and “keep borders open” to near mandatory house arrest (er, self quarantine). All it took was a few sportsball leagues (eg NBA, UEFA) to freak out in order to dictate what the governments do.
The governments are using this opportunity to effect martial law and make their citizenry reliant on them. Soon we will have UBI…
If this virus is truly bad, then I wonder if the governments sat on this and allowed the outbreak so that they could be seen as daddy government for whom we must get taxed and controlled to keep the bailouts rolling ad infinitum.
This crisis is used to limit civil liberties and you can rest assured that you can kiss some of them goodbye now, just like 9/11 was used to set up the TSA with invasive screenings or searched of your luggage without a warrant (my luggage was searched when I went to the US).
My government down here(Argentina) just went full blown retard and mandated countrywide quarantine by decree.
There is no disputing that the health aspect of the pandemic is serious, as overwhelmed ICUs in several places can attest. But it could be managed more rationally by focused measures targeting high risk populations. The cost in money, jobs, disrupted supply chains, eroded civil liberties etc brought on by quarantines is certain to be massive, and will by many times exceed the costs of letting the epidemic run its course in a controlled manner.
My employers had already enabled home office in the past weeks, and wound down operations, so there really is not much work to be done anyways. I got a shitload of books to read, movies to download, and games waiting to be played. I am well stocked with non perishables (always have, I subscribe to the prepper mindset), so I could theorethically sit it out here for several months. Water would be my only worry in case of total breakdown, but that is not an oversight, I simply dont have much space to stock water. I do have a few days worth of supply, though.
Aaron
Have you seen QAnon and #wwg1wga?
I remember you had a post about the benefits of going through conspiracies.
Well I guess we have another one here.
Oh, and I’m laughing my ass off at all Californians trying to buy guns last minute, totally ignoring that they have waiting periods. Stupid fucks.
What are you referring to? I didn’t see anything relevant on https://qmap.pub.
@Aaron
Well there probably isn’t much more to it, other than the below:
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1239147500889673733.html
Guess it’s a bit like this: Hollywood elites helped by ((((them))) are using Adrenochrome and now the good guys (White Hats) are using this crisis to make some high profile arrests and stop (((them))) and their monetary system and stop cultural marxism.
Well, as said… pretty crazy stuff.
I guess Ted Cruz is one of the good guys: https://qmap.pub/players
The corvid birdemic is a planned scam, totalitarian power grab, insider trading, and racketeering, by the Chinese communist party and Chinese Center for Disease Control, the World Health Organization, the World Bank, the United Nations, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the CIA, the Fake News Mass Media, and Fake Social Media: look into the “Event 201”:
Aaron,
You posted before about how some women out there gradually try to milk men for cash:
https://blog.aaronsleazy.com/index.php/2019/08/02/how-women-try-to-gradually-milk-you-for-money/
I just recently found a story on the MGTOW subreddit that demonstrates this phenomenon well:
https://old.reddit.com/r/MGTOW/comments/fkxw5b/haha_this_is_the_most_cuckiest_beta_shit_i_have/
My god…I’m cringing at this.
This was painful to read. The naivety of some guys is beyond belief.
Devil Lips’ is the scary new beauty trend where people are using filler and make-up to make them look lumpy
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-7768855/amp/Bizarre-new-beauty-trend-sees-women-use-lip-fillers-makeup-create-devil-inspired-wavy-pouts.html
This is absolutely ridiculous. Imagine a woman in her early 30s with tattoos, a botched nose job, and those lips!
@Neutral and @aaron
Speaking of alternative sources…
I came across this tweet suggesting that the deaths in China are grossly under reported: https://mobile.twitter.com/kommandostore/status/1241105735204945923
Aaron,
Will you still be providing consultations, or are your consultations on hold due to the Pandemic?
My consultations are unaffected by Covid-19 as I do them from home.
I just published a long article on Covid-19 on my other blog: https://www.aaronselias.com/2020/03/21/the-past-present-and-future-of-the-covid-19-psyops-operation/
What is ypur opinion on forced coronavirus vaccinations?
Vaccines are poison. Its toxic to the body and creates problems in the future.
I know that some of you enjoy reading mangas. I checked out a few of the titles that were on my to-do list. Two that caught my interest are Solo Leveling and Fairy Tail. The former is a very quick read with pleasant artwork, the latter is a bit more text-heavy and quite long with over 500 chapters. If you like fantasy and characters that do something as opposed to brood and hate themselves, they provide some good entertainment.
In terms of books, I finally cracked open Albert Speer’s Inside the Third Reich, the memoirs of Hitler’s Minister of Armaments and War Production. He’s apologizing a bit too much, probably had to, but it’s a fascinating read. It would have been even better had it not been written with hindsight bias but as a commentary on events as they were unfolding.
What would you guys consider valuable technical skills to learn?
The reason I’m asking is because I was thinking about learning a programming language. There seem to be many options though: VBA (programming in excel), java, python, SQL.
I currently work in the financial sector. More specifically at an online broker, but I would like to make my skillset more independent of my employer.
Any input you guys would be willing to share?
You’re looking at using programming to enhance your skills, not to make it your main skill. What are the skills of the people whose job you would like to have? In Finance, VBA and SQL are very common skills, and pretty straightforward to pick up. Python is making in-roads, though. You’ll only touch Java in traditional software development, so don’t bother with it if you don’t want to transition into that field.
Thanks for the reply Aaron!
Well SQL and VBA are pretty good skills to have. From what I noticed, not that many people were good at them. At my previous job it was usually one or two guys who had some skill in them. Your experience seems to be different?
My interest got piqued when I learned about automatic trading by using an API. It seems that these programs tend to work mostly on Java and Python. The idea behind it was that I could use my knowledge on financial products in that area by learning a programming language.
I noticed that Khan Academy has some material on SQL. Perhaps I shall start with that. Together with VBA.
I’m not 100% certain of what type of job I would like to do. Although I do know that I wouldn’t mind a more technical aspect.
I work with people who have Master’s and PhD degrees in STEM subjects. Thus, programming skills are simply taken for granted, even for people who work more in an analytics/data science role as opposed to more traditional software development. If those skills are rare in your company or even industry (which I don’t believe), then get those skills and become more valuable to your employer!
Using an API with simple scripts is a far cry from software development. The skill level you’re looking at is not trivial but it’s something a smart guy, like yourself, based on our conversations, should be able to pick up relatively quickly. Basic SQL, at the level it is used by IQ105 analysts, is something you can learn in an hour or so. You need to know how to select from a table and how to join different tables. That will probably cover at least 95% of the use cases your colleagues encounter.
“to work mostly on Java and Python”
Python and Java (Aaron, correct me if I’m wrong) are used to (at least Python) analyze, but not execute. (too slow, I understand)
Usually some form of C is used or, in case of high frequency trading, you’d have to program it directly into the hardware (sorry for the shitty way of putting things, I have no clue about coding).
If you want a good starting point, check out zorro-project(dot)com and the robotwealth courses.
At least there is little fluff there and they work mostly with C-Lite and then the platform has a Python and an R plugin (or whatever the correct term is).
You can write pretty fast Python (glue) code that calls external libraries. NumPy is an example. It’s basically a wrapper for code written in C. I don’t think Geert wants to dabble in HFT as that would be impossible to do for a single person due to having to go through an intermediary. For HFT, some companies use FPGAs or ASICs. I think you’re referring to FPGAs.
Thanks for the replies guys!
Well I just ordered a book on VBA and SQL will be next on the list!
What would you guys recommend to a 33 year old who wants to break into the world of finance but without any prior experience?
My background: PhD pure maths 2018 graduate, from a top (Russel Group) UK university. I held a brief post doc position abroad, but had to quit it for personal reasons, and was unable to obtain any other academic position since. My PhD topic was pretty niche, with no real world applications. All my applications to hedge funds, investment banks and “sport betting” type companies have been unsuccessful; I had interviews, but have been rejected at various stages due to lack of experience / lack of programming skills / lack of specific background in “hot” areas like machine learning and data science. I became so disillusioned that I stopped applying over half a year ago,
At the moment, I’m working as a maths teacher for “foundation year” students at one of the lowest-ranked universities in UK, teaching simple maths and physics to semi-idiots. This is essentially a dead-end job as far as I am concerned, as it makes absolutely no use of my knowledge or ability, and my earning potential in this line of work is severely limited.
Isn’t that the answer you’re looking for? They tell you they want skills X, Y, Z, so consider acquiring them if you want to work in that field. As an interviewer, though, I’d question your motivation because your background in pure mathematics does not provide a clear connection to finance. Consider that the bulk of new hires in the UK consists of 21-year-olds with a Bachelor’s from Oxbridge/LSE, and a smaller number of candidates from a few other schools. You’d come in as a specialist, and for that, as you’ve seen, you lack specialist knowledge.
Your best bet may be getting a specialized Master’s like the Oxford MCF or a similar program in quantitative finance/financial engineering from a top UK or US school, or get a Master’s in machine learning/data science from a reputable but not necessarily elite university. That would open up opportunities outside of finance, too. Given your background — your IQ is most certainly above 130 — such a degree will probably a breeze for you. In fact, I know bunch of smart guys who easily transitioned from a degree in mathematics to a position in industry in the field of data science. I’d assume that path is quite well-trodden these days.
I hope you’re enjoying the lockdown, Chads. Here, watch this to brighten your day even more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nKNBHtbUrk
This is a video by two fatties (solid 4s) who went to a beauty convention and can’t wrap their head around the fact that people ignored them.
One of those wildebeests has over one million followers on her main YouTube account: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyKlcayeNPgJ_05ItVRLy2g/videos
Clearly, Western society has missed a few off-ramps too many.
YouTube is turning into dogsh*t. I’m subscribed to some of the least PC channels on there, i.e. the few that remain, and they shove mainstream garbage into my feed. Even worse is that there are some channels that seem to be hermetically sealed off. One of my favorites is Thinking-Ape. When I watch one of his videos, the first roughly 15 related videos are by the same creator. My media consumption is already roughly 50% YT/50% other sites like Bitchute or DLive, so I’m quite happy to see YT turn into a mainstream garbage dump.
Can you recommend some good stuff on Bitchute? Cool channels you are subscribed to?
Haven’t made the transition yet, but given gun channels have beem de-monitized (remember: “muuhh evvill gunzz”) and are moving to bitchute, I am slowly getting there.
Bitchute: Black Pigeon Speaks, Felix Rex BPS, Brother “Let the joos fight their own wars” Nathanael, Turd-Flinging Monkey, The Golden One, Mister Metokur. Mister Metokur/The Internet Aristocrat is one of my favorite content creators. Check this out: https://www.bitchute.com/video/SJSqQd1sRAQt/ At my old job I had a private office, but I couldn’t listen to him at work as he would make me laugh too hard.
On DLive, check out the Ralph Retort #killstream. It’s a bit hit-and-miss, and more miss than hit, but some of his guests are great.
If Thinking-Ape wasn’t on YT, I don’t think I wouldn’t bother with that site anymore for political commentary, if at all. When I want to watch vidya gameplay, I could as well use Twitch.
awesome, thank you
@Neutralrandomthoughts – I also recommend the channel “The Critical Drinker”, although I only view it on YouTube. It seems his stuff is on BitChute if you run a search for “Critical Drinker”. Essentially he rips apart mainstream pop culture products (mainly TV and film).
I just checked out that channel. What I’ve sampled I liked. Thanks for the recommendation.
I like Critical Drinker, too, as well as Nerdrotic.
https://ibb.co/Yb96Rcy
The City of Stockholm is now disseminating information about Covid-19 in 26 different languages. A high proportion of the infected in hospital care are allegedly foreign-born, and Somalis also make up a significant proportion of deaths in Stockholm. In their culture, they socialise when somebody is ill and also attend Friday prayers in large groups. When I don’t think I can be surprised by Sweden anymore, I always am.
One thing is sure, after Coronamania has come to an end, Berlin will be nothing but a shithole by then. Sure, it’s been always a shithole but it was a shithole with an exciting nightlife which made it’s shitholeness charming in a strange way. Almost no venue can afford several weeks without income which means that most clubs and bars are going to be closed down forever (Berghain and Tresor probably being the exception here but that doesn’t mean shit, you need a bit of variety). The only thing Berlin was internationally famous for has vanished. At this point, everybody who moves to Berlin and stays there voluntarily is a fucking idiot, without question. The big party is finally over, Coronachan crashed it.
Yeah and as a citizen of this town I’m totally looking forward to those fucking Arab mobsters buying up property and opening shisha bars everywhere when the prices are crashing. It’s going to be ugly.
The irony is that the Germans are literally financing the Arab takeover as the latter milk the welfare state, often with multiple false identities, and make money hand over fist dealing drugs, where you can assume that the vast majority of consumers are Germans. They don’t pay any taxes on revenues, of course. It’s a pretty smart setup, and if the Left was more intelligent, you could almost think that they deliberately set up this scheme to wreck the country they, as they love to proclaim, hate so much. Once the country really has gone to shit, they’ll most certainly sing a different tune.
One good thing that might come out of this is that many guys who struggle with women see that having a wife/family isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. When you are single with little expenses it’s much easier to weather a crisis versus having a family to support. I think because some ‘incels’ haven’t had much success with women they assume have a relationship means you just get to bang the girl all day and that’s it.
Aaron, please delete my last name from the post… I accidentally included it! Thanks
Done.
There is also b.s. advice such as “two people can live as cheaply as one”. What most guys will find, however, is that a live-in girlfriend will make tremendous demands. Your small studio apartment will no longer do. Thus, your expenses can easily quadruple if you go from having a frugal bachelor lifestyle to needing a swanky two-bedroom apartment in the nicest part of town to keep cutie pie happy. From a financial perspective, a wife and a family is by far the biggest expense of your life. A large percentage of guys could comfortably retire in their early 40s if they were unmarried and only had themselves to take care of.
Very true, I remember a few girls I previously dated who were basically asking me when I was planning to buy a house. Even though I have a nice 1br apartment in a great area they were thinking I would spend up to $400K on some house! What the fuck do I need extra rooms and furniture for? I seriously think the reason they forced marriages on people when they were younger in previous generations is because men’s minds are clouded by the constant desire for sex when they are young.
Do you guys think its a bad idea to contact old female acquaintances at this point in time?
Back when I started studying in college,I had strong Anti-game. I was completely oblivious to female signals. It was only near the end(and reading a lot of material until I found Aaron)of my college run that I figured out what’s what. Knowing what I know now,I had missed so many opportunities,its not even funny.
There’s a few of them I’m thinking of hitting up on facebook,but I’m wondering if it is a bad idea because I won’t be able to setup a meeting anytime soon(due to COVID and country lockdown)and(assuming I get a positive response)engaging in long distance texting/messaging for the next several weeks(or months)until the pandemic is over is probably not a great idea,or so I think.
Would like to hear thoughts.
Chicks engage in all kinds of risky behavior so I don’t imagine this would be any different. Perhaps current affairs is a great excuse to skip outside meetings altogether and just have her come over for whatever reason (coffee, dinner, drinks, movie).
Nope, not a good idea. Just because you figured a woman was into you in the past, it does not mean she will be into you now. There usually is a window of opportunity when you need to act, after which she will assume you are dumb/not interested/dont have the balls/gay, or some hotter guy came along.
That window of opportunity may open again or it may not at some point down the line, but I think it is better to focus on detecting women who are into you right now.
Brother I can so identify with your experience. I’ve tried to do exactly what you are inquiring about and it definitely doesn’t work. Not necessarily because of what you might think. Alek has had some interesting insights on this. I believe Assanova has as well.
These girls lose interest without a doubt. But not attraction. By not responding to their signals they feel that you consider them to be ugly. They feel so spurned by you that it comforts them to believe that you have all of the inadequacies that Yarara refered to. But chin up bro, just don’t make the same mistakes in the future.
Display success on social media and they will contact you if you still have a change with them
While most of the movies on my to-do list turned out to be disappointing, which made me drop them quickly, one was a real stand out: 10 Cloverfield Lane. I don’t want to spoil anything, though. It’s a very well made (low budget) psychological horror movie that managed to keep my attention all the way through. It has no connection to Cloverfield, besides the name. Give it a try!
Cool, thanks for the recommendation. Did you check out When Trumpets Fade?
I did check out When Trumpets Fade. It didn’t grab me, so I stopped watching it after a while. But thanks for the recommendation!
You’re welcome. Sorry you didn’t like it. If you don’t mind my asking, what was it missing in your opinion? Too boring? Bad acting?
Personally, I liked it because it separated itself from every other WWII movie I’ve seen by portraying it just like any other war, except worse. Mainstream Hollywood would never do that. I thought it was a bold move to do that. Then again, I might be missing some gems out there because there are plenty I haven’t seen.
It seemed to move a bit slowly. I’m not saying that the movie is per se bad. It’s just that if a movie doesn’t grab me within 15 minutes or so, which is enough time to cover the exposition, I very rarely continue watching it. The next cut-off point is after around 25 minutes, because by that point the major conflict should have been set up.
Our friend Lisbon made it into the Face&LMS Looks Live stream hahaha: https://youtu.be/nwX6zNY6840?t=20089
See, even Face doesn’t get why you are an incel.
That’s interesting! I chuckled when Face said, “This guy mogs me into a black hole in outer space.” In any case, Lisbon is not an incel. Like a Chad, he kicked his last girlfriend to the curb. He also makes out regularly with sluts in clubs and, undoubtedly, could easily have sex with them.
Thanks for pointing this out. I was quite disappointed by his last few live streams, so I only listened to a small part of this most recent one and therefore missed Lisbon’s guest appearance.
“If this guy’s suffering, then it’s really FUCKING over for me!” Gotta love FaceAndLMS. The comment section was funny too. I read a lot of guys simply saying “it’s over.” Some of the guys didn’t think Lisbon was good looking, but you always have that kind of shit on the net.
“Some of the guys didn’t think Lisbon was good looking, but you always have that kind of shit on the net.”
A lot of people on that stream probably wouldn’t even want him to succeed. Crab mentality at it’s worst.
The overarching theme is that “it’s over” for everybody in that stream. Note that this is also reflected in the times the host chooses for his show: Saturday night, New Year’s Eve, Valentine’s etc., i.e. days in which the incel crowd will be available. However, some guests get encouraged to go out and try their luck before giving up. This is particularly true if the caller is in his teens. I have not watched enough of those streams to know if this is generally true, but at least that is the impression I got.
I just watch the stream because of face’s humour, he is really funny [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwX6zNY6840&t=13156s just killed me haha].
But yeah he said that he wants to get “failed” normies out of the community/streams and only real incels (very short/ hideously ugly) in. You can find his statement in minute 26:00 in the stream above. Funny though is that a lot of “chads” seem to call into the stream, well at least Face is stating it in his calls.
Thanks.
I made a call on livestream too, but the connection wasn’t good, a lot of eco.
I have bad news, i’m balding in the crown area. So now i need too shave my head totally.
I noticed after i cut all my hair. Now i can see lack of hair in this area.
https://ibb.co/ZgDyk5J
https://ibb.co/PQJP815
If i wasn’t getting sucess with hair, imagine now, without my hair. Let’s be honest, not everyone is like Jason Statham, The Rock and Bruce Willis.
My Toni Mahfud hair project it’s over.
https://ibb.co/fkR7fGz
Most guys in the comments called him a Chad. Basically what we’ve been telling Lisbon all along.
Do you think more men learn about psychological manipulation and perhaps use it in relationships with females to manage them better? It used to be the case that a badly behaving female would be physically punished so that she got back in line. Because that is not not a recourse anymore, should corporal punishment be replaced by psychological punishment?
Or is it solely a female trait, and would be a dishonorable thing for a man to engage in?
At the very least, should men entangle themselves in some kind of psychological manipulation to know when it’s happening and how to manage it better?
What are your guys’ thoughts on this?
As far as site traffic, i think just a matter of people getting their bearings.
In some parts of the western world, it’s been hard to get food.
NYC is like a third world country now.
I think you’re right. I’ve also noticed that some of my favorite creators have been producing a lot less material in the last few weeks. Everybody is now building a stash, hunkering down, and playing video games, it seems.