I'm 44 and have only achieved savings within the past year and a half. I live a very modest life and have always TRIED to live below my means, but living off of my government salary was challenging. I received a ~18k raise 2 years ago and I'm finally able to live "comfortably".
I've been rather unimpressed with Bard when asking it "common sense" type of information. It's limited memory is also a problem when trying to have a meaningful conversation with depth.
I spent a few hours last night trying to work on a story outline with Bard's help and while individual responses were sometimes okay, Bard regularly forgot about plot points and character traits we decided on earlier in the conversation and that was frustrating. ChatGPT is much better at conversational memory, but provided much less interesting results to individual queries.
Unlike other commenters, I think these artificial limitations aren't about spending or competency, but rather out of fear. Google is afraid of their bot turning racist, or saying things that could embarrass them.
It already did a pretty good job of embarrassing them, social media is full of Bard failure screenshots. It couldn't even write a Javascript function to add two numbers.
I'm glad you pointed out the tags issue. I've been using Daylio for a while now because I like doing little entries throughout my day and I initially set up a bunch of tags. Lately those tags have started to feel like a burden because I worry about missing an entry related to those tags. That burden hasn't become significant yet, but it is something that's bothering me and I could see it be an excuse later on to just give up on the whole thing... i.e. the data junky in me says what's the point of tracking data if the dataset isn't accurate.
I’ve been working on the same thing. Does anyone here have tips on how to filter/mask a given time-based data set so that it infers data where possible (i.e. if I logged one mood for the day, it’s probably safe to map that across the whole day) and ignore unrealistic data (I.e. if I logged one meal for the day, that’s probably not a useful day of data).
So far just been winging it on a case-by-case basis but curious if there’s a fundamental pattern I’m missing
Twice. At 31 I left the Automotive field to start working in IT. It was a low paying government job without a lot of applicants. I started college at 32 and got an AA in IT. At 38 my state legislature shut down my agency and my wife and kids moved out. I lost everything in resetting my finances and digging myself out of the hole she created.
I had spent the past few years of my IT life learning PHP and at 39 I landed a job as a developer at another state agency. Not only was it a career reset, but an entire life reset. I turned 40 with absolutely nothing. I'm about to turn 44, and am flirting with 6 figures between my state salary and my side gigs. I have a savings for the first time in my adult life and a stable home life.
it's absolutely possible and I didn't even try very hard.
I've published almost 1,800 video diaries and this is a game changer for me. I've been wanting to do more with the back catalog, but don't have transcripts.
I keep a brown noise generator on my phone for reading. It helps me a great deal, especially in noisy environments when my brain is trying to pay attention to something else in my surroundings. Oddly, however, it doesn't help me at work. I focus much better with music when writing code. I can't read with music because I'll catch myself listening to the music more than paying attention to what I'm supposed to be reading.
I was a warehouseman in the Marine Corps in the late 90s. Our warehouse was absolute garbage. we couldn't fill something like 30% of our orders because we couldn't find the items or the inventory was off. We were also still running on nightly batches from some IBM AS400 system. I wrote a receiving program to print labels and properly assign stock locations to incoming inventory. Coupled with better control procedures we turned the ~$4MM operation around and ran at over 99% efficiency. Earned myself two NAMs for that work. It was 100% VB with a custom flat-file database.
Then I stopped working on software for ~15 years because I burned out
We sound similar, except for the 12 pack in a weekend thing. I don't drink much, but I enjoy it when I do. When I drink, it's one drink. Maybe two if I'm feeling extra spicy that day. I enjoy the ritual of the drink. I enjoy the little buzz I get. I enjoy socializing with my fellow drinkers. I DO NOT enjoy how it makes me feel an hour later... that night... the next day. I can tell that something isn't right almost immediately and that steals the joy from the ritual.
So, I just remember that when I want to have a drink. It's going to make me groggy. It's going to make me snore... which annoys my partner. It's going to make me wake up "foggy". Sometimes, particularly when I don't have any responsibilities the next day, or I'm away from my partner, I decide that it's okay, and I'll have a drink. Most times, I won't. I'll have something else instead. Try a virgin drink or a non-alcoholic beer. There's lots of tasty options that don't come with the negative side effects. My go-to is just tonic water with lemon/lime. I don't even miss the vodka/gin that's supposed to be in there. Have them add a splash of dry vermouth or bitters for a little extra special something.
I have found, in the situations where I took control of my desire and rejected the "need" for a drink, I have felt an even better "buzz" from that decision than I would the drink!
I was a parts department manager in the early 00's when Mercedes USA decided to switch all their systems over to SAP. It was an absolute nightmare for 6 months. The entire UX (at that time) was unfathomable. Even our regional representative couldn't figure out how to use the software when he was trying to train us.
At the end of that year, Mercedes hosted a "we're sorry" conference in San Diego and paid for all parts and service managers across the nation to travel and drink at the open bars for a week. I guess that part was okay.
