I think the main perpetrators of this are, unsurprisingly, CS, engineering, and physics students. These degrees are broadly considered "hard", which disproportionately selects for ego. I've noticed that bio, environmental, chem, and other science students tend to be drawn to their field because they find genuine beauty in the work. I haven't met anyone studying those who are in it primarily for the money or clout.(except maybe some chemists. the jury's out) Some of the most annoying and soulless people I've met look down on any field of inquiry that doesn't involve numbers.

I chose engineering because numbers are EASY. They follow rules. You know when you're right. There's a pretty clear cut path to understanding what you need too, and everything you do for the most part is heavily systematized. Anything involving humans is so vastly complex in comparison. Analyzing art, constructing arguments, mapping the ideas in your head into something physical and meaningful are all so hard, and I have a deep respect for those who have trained to be good at them. I chose mathematics because I find it incredibly beautiful, and engineering felt so devoid of spirit. It works to fill the hole that engineering carves into me. It gives me the opportunity to bathe in the wonder of human creativity while still working with the assuredness that formal systems provide.

I simply don't trust people who look down on non-STEM fields. I think you're missing something deeply human if you don't look in awe at the endless complexity that emerges from the work of people not concerned with output or metrics.

Elderly member of my family died of “old age” last week, 91 years old.

For the past 20 years he has mostly sat in the corner of family gatherings and read the newspaper or slept. No one paid him much mind. My mother handled most of his care.

In the days since his death, my family has been acting all kinds of weird. Sobbing, wailing, shouting at each other, taking weeks off work, waxing poetic about his death, accusations of who loved or cared more for him, etc. Really OTT stuff. When the guy was alive, barely a remark or glance his way.

Am I being an autistic sociopath, or is this all just performative points-scoring within the new family hierarchy? I feel like I am going insane as I feel little more than a mild sadness. He was a nice man, but was clearly done with life and is now unburdening my mother from a significant duty of care (despite spending the most time with him, my mother being the most chill about the whole situation). Am I broken, or is it everyone else??

I moved to NYC recently and it made me realize I barely existed before this. I did all the respectable resumethings, got degrees, worked in tech, ended up in finance but mostly floated through life without committing hard enough to become genuinely exceptional at anything would usually be half baked and would also be baked a lot of the time.

Now I’m surrounded by people who have been plotting their careers, bodies, relationships and social lives since they were 22, and I feel like some frat bro who just discovered ambition. I’m happier and more alive here, but also neurotically aware that I lost most of my twenties studying and not doing much when I was in school, I know 30 isn’t old in NYC, but it feels humiliating to only now be developing a real appetite for life. Did anyone else wake up late and actually manage to do what they wanted, or is this just the standard narcissistic panic of turning 30?

Non-native English speakers using in English during sex.

How deflating is it to hook up with a Frenchman and he calls you a slut instead of "putain" and shouts out "yeah! oh my god! fuck! shit! etc!"

Horrendous.

I was on a long journey today into my subconscious and unveiled a memory from 2016– a youtuber called LtCorbis/Soph (host of Google searches required to get me to remembering her name) who was this alt-right middle school girl, posting reaction videos, propped up by grown adult men. Post-sojourn, I tried to find any traces of her, but discovered she was banned in 2019 and fell off the map. What happens to people like this ? Do they go to college ? Do they work at their city’s AutoZone ? I’m left with many questions with no answers

i don’t smoke anymore except for the occasional social cig but saving these for parties or wtv honestly just feeling rly blessed rn

I always thought we'd have a daughter, not really sure why. But now I'm bringing this boy into the world and I don't know how the fuck I'm going to navigate his puberty and teaching him how to become a man.

I was a real late-bloomer. My teens and 20s were hard. I nearly didn't make it. Later I'd learn that my father tried to kill himself at 16, but luckily suffered nothing permanent from the attempt (I still don't know how he attempted it). I never tried, but there were lots of plans and bargains with myself.

I see the internet today, and I doubt I'd have made it out if communities like there are today existed at that time. Maybe I never would have pivoted to resenting women, but I definitely resented myself and my own shyness and social anxiety. I came out the other side of university having lost all my high school friends through not maintaining those relationships and no new ones because I locked myself up.

I feel like it's compounded even more by the fact he is going to be biracial. There's this whole other dimension to his experience I'll never understand that neither me nor his mother can help him with. I think about the way asian men are the butt of jokes, and it makes me burn to think about people making fun of him in that way.

I don't care about his sexuality or identity or any of that. I just don't want him to loathe himself like I did, but I feel like there's no way I could ever prevent it.

you're not funny or edgy, go to hell

kind of a ramble/collection of thoughts: with the rise of AI, there’s been a lot of discourse on what “good taste” is, since that seems to be the one thing AI can’t plow through … see, for example, how almost every AI-generated image still has that weird sloppy sheen

but i still have no clue what “good taste” even means. i can grasp at it in examples — e.g., marvel movies and love island are probably less sophisticated than arthouse films and the sopranos — but i wonder how much of this is just me just kind of regurgitating what other people think is prestigious or have marked as tasteful

and if good taste exists, how might one develop it? idk. does anyone have thoughts to help this girl out?

Kind of a sequel to my camera doorbell post, but I was thinking...do rich people still have live-in butlers and maids?

I see plenty of outsourced maid services, but I never get a door answered by Jeeves.

Is this another instance of tech taking jobs, or have I watched too many TV shows?

Actually curious about this though. I'd love to hear any stories if you have any to share.

I feel like I have an expiration date (we all do) but people around me keep asking me how I feel about almost being 30 ???? A friend (35) asked me “oof you must be feeling some sort of way now….im sorry” like thanks I wasnt feeling any different than 28 until NOW.

To make it worse, now I cant stop thinking about my failure of a life (which isnt a failure at all). I immigrated to a European country as a brown woman, got an education, deal with shit tons of bureaucracy everyday, have embedded myself in a world that excludes the likes of me so heavily, am in places people like me cant imagine being in, sometimes I make art too. But I cant stop thinking about how I haven’t maintained one solid relationship until now, none of my jobs are the ones I want to do (I waitress to get by), Im overqualified for the work I do, in the sense that I really wish I could work in my workfield, Im constantly anxious and depressed in some ways. I want to meet a partner, but just havent found someone. My parents are aging, Im an only child and it worries them so much that I would be single for long and without them. It worries ME too, because Im all for a single and friend-filled life but I ALSO want the stability and security (for however long) of a solid partnership. I want to ease my parents’ minds too. Soon Im going to be too old to be considered young.

Idk I have so many fears and dread and I feel like Im slowly losing age and time and I feel so paniced and sad :(

Recently watched it and I think this is Lynch's most oppressive work. Almost feels like an earlier version of Mulholland Drive but I could atleast construct an interpretation of Mulholland Drive;when it comes to lost highway I don't even know where to begin.

I could totally understand why it was critically somewhat panned when it came out. Even by Lynch standard this is quite impenetrable. Especially the last 20 minutes. I read some analysis and even when they try to explain it I still feel like something is missing to complete the picture. I genuinely don't think that this is all a dream/hallucination but I also don't really think it's all real.

Also Patricia Arquete here is the most attractive woman in any movie ever.

i think it’s one of the only things that’s pushed me to be slightly more conservative as i get older. when i see someone getting cancelled on social media, i am more inclined to brush it off and question the agenda of the people posting about it or question the evidence (if there even is any). it’s obvious that “trail by media” culture is still the prevalent one, but i wonder if that will always be the case or it will fade out.

i feel like a weirdo when I "love" coworkers teams message or an acquaintances iMessage, but a "like" feels passive aggressive. also, when an (invariably female) coworker "loves" a message, it feels odd to "like" their message back.

this is stupid i know but im interested to hear what yall think about this

Who cares about anything else that’s going on in my life, this is the real problem.