MetaFilter

It's hard to say without more information about your product (what category it's in, whether you're selling B2B or B2C, physical or digital, payment model, etc), but it sounds like you have a good handle on what it is you want to make, but a not-so-great handle on how to (if) you can sell it, so I'd say focus on that.

Speak with prospective customers, ask them about their needs, see if your product would help them, try asking for money up-front. If your product solves a... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Imperfect at 6:24 PM on January 11, 2020

These are people whose opinions I greatly respect.

Try not to divide people - especially women - into people you respect and people you don't respect. If you don't make people earn your respect, if you focus on respecting everyone all the time, you will get better at listening to them.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by jacquilynne at 4:06 AM on January 11, 2020

Learn to listen. It's not an innate skill, especially for academic white men who just...aren't expected to do it. Not just active listening, which everyone has heard of, but listening with empathy and - this is the one weird trick - a communal spirit of goodwill as if you and the speaker are on the same team. Imagine that your job is NOT to challenge, but to raise up (non-condescendingly). Not to be the most right, but to learn more about things from other people who... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Lyn Never at 7:41 PM on January 10, 2020

I've favorited a lot of comments in this thread. I think MeFi has a problem with contempt. Before posting their hot takes about how people who have never eaten foo are baz, I wish people would simply rein in their contempt. I would remind them that this is a community, not a private conversation between them and their buddies. But because they have contempt for other people, it doesn't matter to them if those people see it or not. If you have contempt for someone, it's not worth using your... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by the liquid oxygen at 4:43 PM on January 8, 2020

Having grown up working class, spent my 20s poor and on assistance, and having had a meteoric career rise in my 30s, I've experienced life on a lot of parts of the economic spectrum. Here are my findings:

1. The main difference between the rich and poor is how much money they have.

2. Our culture infantilizes and coddles the rich to a degree they would find insulting if they truly believed a lot of our cultural myths of self-sufficiency and... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by turntraitor at 7:43 AM on January 10, 2020

Warning: digression

Could someone explain how the "American" dream is different from dreams of people of other countries?

As an American-Canadian I have spent some time thinking about this. I would summarize it as a mythology where "anyone" (= those who "deserve" it) can become rich at any time, and therefore, each individual has to maximize their readiness to seize The Moment Of Opportunity by... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by warriorqueen at 6:59 AM on January 10, 2020

I’ve stated in another thread that my brother is deploying to Saudi Arabia in May. He joined when was 29 because he was up to his neck in debt from the college degree he didn’t have (he dropped out of college the semester after our mom died), couldn’t get a decent job without a degree, and saw no reasonable prospects for a change so he joined the Navy. That was ten years ago and in the time since, the Navy paid his old loans, sent him all over the Pacific, got his BA degree, married a woman he... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Big Al 8000 at 8:47 AM on January 9, 2020

I don't know if the boyzone con culture was set by behavior like this or if it's implicit in the kind of people who like sci-fi.

The women Asimov harassed were largely "people who like sci-fi". Most of the people participating in discussion here are "people who like sci-fi". The problem isn't "people who like sci-fi", it's misogynists and harassers.
posted to MetaFilter by Lexica at 9:09 AM on January 8, 2020

This is a great essay, thanks for linking it.
posted to MetaFilter by LobsterMitten at 11:53 AM on January 7, 2020

seattle walk report is one of my favorite tributes to the joys of walking
posted to MetaFilter by josephtate at 11:28 AM on January 2, 2020

Learn multiple skills that would be useful in an underground economy. Everything from dental hygiene, paramedicine, butchering, repairing frozen water pipes and unclogging drains, setting up solar panels - the stuff that you or other people may need and not be want to or be able to go to someone in the regular economy. You can learn a lot from internet videos, but much of these skills will require a few basic tools and a bit of practice. Learn to work with your hands and get good at it.... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Jane the Brown at 6:51 AM on December 31, 2019

The final paragraph the article:

> If you were a queer writer, or a woman of color writer, would you want someone to read you because they thought they were doing something dutiful about power structures? Or because they gravitated to you, not out of any sense that you would teach them something about diversity that they could then write about in a year-end essay—but that they just read you because you were good?

I would certainly... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by egypturnash at 4:32 PM on December 18, 2019

I really enjoyed The Baffler article. I think a lot about what it means that I’m usually reading rather than watching television, but doing so on a screen (my phone or Kindle). The disturbing scene from the future I find myself dwelling on isn’t Fahrenheit 451, but the scene from Wall-E of everyone ensconced in comfy clothes in comfy chairs, eyes glued to a screen. We continue to think advancement in tech equates to making things easier and more comfortable... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by sallybrown at 7:48 AM on December 18, 2019

Okay, look, I know that this will sound overwhelmingly smug, but whether I am being asked what I do or asking what someone else does, I try to read the interaction. Are they serious about asking what I do? Do I feel like they want to talk about what they do? Should I be funny when I describe my job? Should I ask them a silly or a serious follow-up question? If they're being funny, do they want us to mutually riff on their comments? I'm a weirdo, not a... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Frowner at 7:22 AM on December 17, 2019

Me: can we skip this part.
Them: really, what do you do?
Me: *sigh* I’m a chemistry professor
Them: oh *awkward silence*

yeah when you writhe and sigh and faux-refuse to answer but then do a quick-switch to finally admit that you have a perfectly normal profession, it does leave other people at a bit of a loss for how to follow such an anticlimax. maybe leave the oh-don't-ask-me-this bit to the hit men and the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by queenofbithynia at 9:06 PM on December 16, 2019

What’s the PRIZM name for harbinger zips? I skimmed the paper for PRIZM but didn’t see a mention.

Checking the Claritas listings according to Wikipedia now and there are so many more of them than I remember. They seem to be working to slice and dice the U.S. middle and working classes even more finely than before. (Their press release center reads like a primer on where marketers will be turning their attention; wait to see these... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by sobell at 12:34 PM on December 12, 2019

I'm in the process of doing this on my own. I would highly recommend the Humongous books (Humongous Book of Algebra to start but there is one on trig too). It's nothing but problems and solutions. Do all of them. If you don't understand them, read their solution, then do it until you get it right and understand why it is the way it is. If you really don't get it, then there are lots of video sources (Khan Academy mentioned above is awesome). Some good... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by mrbarky at 1:04 PM on December 6, 2019

parking is dumb
posted to MetaFilter by Reclusive Novelist Thomas Pynchon at 1:32 PM on November 20, 2019

One more then I'll go away (too much coffee!).

Now it's true that in China, the pay-with-your-phone madness presents difficulties for non-Chinese people, and it's true that the system has not been implemented in such a way that someone who doesn't speak Chinese can figure it out without headache (the whole reason I'm yammering about it here is I've given the speech a million times to a million tourists, the pain is real). Chinese people themselves... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by saysthis at 6:20 PM on November 17, 2019

Alright, not here to forgive the social credit system or Alipay/WePay for actual sins, but one thing I DO want to point out is that it's absurdly easy to get a bank account in China, easier than almost anywhere else in the world. Now, that doesn't apply to all banks (rules and clerks vary) and in no way shape or form are you guaranteed an English-speaking clerk, but we're talking about China, so you probably weren't expecting that anyway. By "easy" I mean they ask you to bring your... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by saysthis at 4:54 PM on November 17, 2019

These are setting up to be the worst holidays ever.

I lost my Dad suddenly last week and my brother's wife has maybe a couple weeks to live at this point (lung cancer) and certainly won't make it to the end of the year. We are not a big nuclear family - me, my brother, our spouses, mom and dad. So to see 2 out of the 6 of us go is just devastating. The rest of us feel like survivors of some natural disaster.

I'll take the hugs. Thank you.
posted to MetaTalk by vacapinta at 12:17 PM on November 13, 2019

I think the idea that he ends up alone because of some moral failing is just the usual desire to turn dating into some fucked-up morality play.

He’s not alone because he’s a bad person, he’s alone because he has no actual sense of self. There’s nothing to attach to. Can you imagine having fun with him? A moment of even a little joy? Does he seem capable of connection, regardless of how desperately he wants it? He’s an empty collection of beliefs... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by schadenfrau at 3:56 AM on November 10, 2019

Well

My name is GPT-2 and I'm here to say

generate_unconditional_samples.py

a lemon to a lime, a lime to a lemon

before you run train.py you gotta import json

posted to MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 3:22 PM on November 6, 2019

I keep hearing fellow Millennials, Gen Xer's, and Baby Boomers speaking in very hopeful terms about Gen Z and I think they need to stop. I'm a dead-middle Millennial, and I interact with a lot of Gen Z/very late Millennial kids. They're the pendulum swinging back; the boot lickers, the uncritical brand slaves, and toadies for conventional power (be it whiteness, capital, etc.). Nearly every white kid I meet - 22 and under- is a racist pile of garbage, spouting memes. It's not just the boys, but... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by constantinescharity at 4:30 PM on November 3, 2019

On reflection, I think that probably the best response to the whole NYT OK Boomer thing is to actually go out and do activist stuff, and do it with some confidence and principle. Memes and slogans and so on have their uses but "painting a real and detailed picture of interpersonal relationships" isn't one of them. It's easy to get into a lot of really stupid headspace if the time you spend on the internet is more significant than the time you spend with real people... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Frowner at 12:59 PM on November 3, 2019

The Long Boat by Stanley Kunitz

When his boat snapped loose
from its mooring, under
the screaking of the gulls,
he tried at first to wave
to his dear ones on shore,
but in the rolling fog
they had already lost their faces.
Too tired even to choose
between jumping and calling,
somehow he felt absolved and free
of his burdens, those... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by nantucket at 9:13 AM on October 31, 2019 marked best answer

I admire the HECK out of Dahlia Lithwick.
posted to MetaFilter by potrzebie at 5:32 PM on October 30, 2019

If this bothers you–and it should–go and register voters. Print the forms, stuff them in envelopes, carry them with you, and ask The Question: Are you registered to vote? This simple act CRUSHES DESPAIR. Don't wait for the local party to get involved, don't ask for help. Do it yourself. I live in a VERY red state. But if only 20% of Dems in my state registered a couple of voters each, we'd have a lead in registrations. If the Independents did the same we would have a COMMANDING lead in regs. I'm... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by ivanthenotsoterrible at 10:42 AM on October 29, 2019

I remain amazed at all the naive speculation here that this is about money. It's not. It's about squashing voices who will speak truth to power.
posted to MetaFilter by ambrosen at 4:06 PM on October 29, 2019

http://deadspin2.com/
posted to MetaFilter by the duck by the oboe at 2:26 PM on October 29, 2019

I just learned more from page 2 than I learned in highschool pre-calc, calc, and university level calc (2 courses) and thermodynamics. Thank you so much!
posted to MetaFilter by some chick at 10:57 AM on October 28, 2019

I'm exhausted by twee comparisons of fantasy novels to the very real emergence of fascism in the US - this isn't Harry Potter or the hobbits. Real people are dying and the mechanisms of democracy and governance in this country are being smashed. It is not cute, or a joke.
posted to MetaFilter by ryanshepard at 6:22 AM on October 23, 2019

Practical:
Unsubscribe from all retail emails and social media accounts
Avoid design and fashion publications in print and online- they constantly push “refreshing” your decor or “investing” in jeans
Unfollow “influencers”
Never set foot into a mall!

Mental:
Say something you’re grateful for before every meal and before bed (where a religious person might say grace or evening prayers). “I’m grateful my body is... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by nouvelle-personne at 5:43 AM on October 22, 2019

All right, I'll start us off with an overshare. I was just practically dancing in my kitchen this morning, so delighted was I with the activities of last evening, middle of the night, and morning. I've never been loved the way I need to be loved and I finally am now and I just can't get enough, and I'm so grateful that I lived long enough to experience this.
posted to MetaTalk by HotToddy at 6:10 PM on October 19, 2019

If you listen to or play things like Bulgarian folk music you get better both at counting meters like this and coming to terms with the fact that they're best conceived of as repeating sequences of long and short metric feet (typically corresponding to three and two beats, respectively) rather than an undistinguished bag of, say, thirteen beats. If you look at the time signatures in some of Béla Bartók's music, for example, you'll find things like "2/8 + 3/8 + 2/8", which if merely... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by invitapriore at 11:14 AM on October 18, 2019

Minnesota has a new government initiative called “Lawns to Legumes,” where starting next year you can get $$ to help convert your yard from grass to pollinator-friendly alternatives. I converted half of my yard this year but planned to wait to do the rest until next year and hopefully get some free money for seeds/plants. But then high schoolers and Greta were leading the global climate strike, and I felt like I should do something, too. So I decided to take advantage of fall planting/seed... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Maarika at 8:53 AM on October 15, 2019

I'm splurging my time on Neal Stephenson's The Baroque Cycle. I'm halfway through the second book (on my third try!) and damn it, I'm committed!
posted to MetaTalk by kinsey at 5:38 AM on October 14, 2019

Ah! I was on a vacation this weekend so was trying to limit my phone time but I am chuffed to see my question used, and the very different answers everyone has - it's such a neat glimpse into your lives.

The splurgey purchase that prompted this question for me was a Nespresso machine. I had a perfectly functioning Keurig at home (along with an Aeropress and pourover), and a functioning but slow coffeemaker at work. However, every time I saw my coworker's Nespresso or... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Sparky Buttons at 6:47 PM on October 13, 2019

Meldanthral and kate4914 have it.

Source: My name's Diona, I play the forensic scientist Kasie Hines on NCIS. Thanks for watching the show.

Also this is a throwaway account.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by ThisIsAOneTimeThing at 8:02 PM on October 15, 2019

But I think that the big point isn't Ellen - it's the Whelk's point about class solidarity. Rich people hang together (or they'll all hang separately, lol). This is both because they recognize their class interests and because, as you get further into a rarified, isolated existence far from the lifeways of regular people, your thinking changes. Neither Ellen nor George Bush ever, ever have to think about whether they'll afford something. Probably neither of them ever goes... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Frowner at 11:20 AM on October 12, 2019

This is the pot that made the casserole run in less than twelve parsnips!
posted to MetaFilter by cortex at 12:12 PM on October 4, 2019

Weird, I wrote a piece 6 months ago about how software engineers should adopt Primum Non Nocere. Basically, I think there's no way to prevent malicious use of software, but the important thing for individual developers to understand is that their choices matter. We do not exist in black boxes, and if we know what we are doing contributes to a worse society (and we should find out if this is the case), we should do something else. It's really that simple, and I'm not sure there... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by swift at 11:53 AM on October 4, 2019

We had an applicant show up in a sports coat and fancy slacks and that was enough for people to make jokes about it (not in front of the applicant, of course). And we hired him, it wasn't a barrier in any way, but even just the sports coat was noticeably more formal than what is typical in my field.

I have to say that I find this really obnoxious. At least it is widely, if sometimes dimly, understood that you are supposed to dress better than usual... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by praemunire at 8:28 AM on October 4, 2019

As a guy who bought a few hundred thousand suits in a former life...I have thoughts.

My first job out of college was as an Assistant Buyer for Kaufmann's, a regional arm of the larger department store company known as May Company, at the time. I didn't know it in the early aughts, but I was one of the last dinosaurs in that particular line of work, buying Men's Tailored Clothing for that dark, wood-lined, velvet-chaired corner of the department store that housed the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by allkindsoftime at 3:43 PM on October 3, 2019

That stupid jargon file is probably why developers are always put in the basement and fed pizza and soda.
posted to MetaFilter by grumpybear69 at 12:06 PM on October 3, 2019

Since the ADA is typically enforced via litigation (the cops don't show up if a business aren't ADA compliant, being ADA compliant protects against lawsuits) you should expect many (perhaps most) of the online communities near and dear to your heart to get sued into oblivion if this goes 9-0.

I’m sure you anticipated this being a great rhetorical flourish that would cow me into reconsidering my foolish absolutism. Instead, I offer you a reiteration:... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Etrigan at 1:02 PM on September 30, 2019

Agreed that one of the best companions was the hunter pet in World of Warcraft. It felt like it was just you and your pet against the world. You could issue crude commands to manipulate what they did (move, attack, return, etc) and you could even assume direct control (eyes of the beast). You had to feed them their favored treats to keep their happiness up. There were endless aggro tricks you could use, getting them to kite, tank, or dps. Hunters could solo many quests with their pet that would... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by xdvesper at 4:58 PM on September 29, 2019

Dragnet is not a great movie, not even really a good one. But it is extremely watchable, which is part of the reason why it made such great basic cable filler for years, and why it clings to a sliver of popular memory today.

As for this – well, the song itself is terrible, just an abomination. But the thing that sticks with you is how totally committed Hanks and Aykroyd are. Any winking or irony would completely undo the hope of this video being successful, but also... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by workingdankoch at 2:20 AM on September 29, 2019

.Honestly the trick to making friends is to keep showing up to the same place at the same time for a long period of time.

A friend who lives a lot taught me this:

Find a weekly activity for each of 3 areas:
Fitness/health
Community service
Spiritual (whatever that means to you)

That's three social events a week.

At each event have a conversation with at least 3 people.

After 3 weeks to 3 months you will have community..
posted to Ask MetaFilter by jander03 at 10:50 AM on September 28, 2019

say what you will, content was created on this day
posted to MetaFilter by prize bull octorok at 1:52 PM on September 23, 2019