searabbit

That’s me some mornings. I wake up, do my morning routine - SYKE! It was a dream and I’m still asleep. Repeat like 5 infuriating times.

If that was my whole life right now, I’m at least glad I’m not aware of it. That would be hell.

The findings suggest that employees with dark traits may be more willing to take on tasks others avoid, so managers see them as useful for work that could harm the manager’s own reputation, such as enacting unpopular policies, disciplining staff or conducting layoffs.

“Throughout history and in organizations, there are people who have to do dirty, bad things that a lot of people don’t want to do, and perhaps dark personalities are better able to do those than those who lack these traits,” he said. “A leader recognizes a place for people who seem to violate conventional norms of what it is to be a good person.”

This explains the big management consulting firms like McKinsey to a T.

Hamshahri newspaper said they were hit by an “Israeli drone strike”.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told the BBC they were unable to verify this unless provided with the co-ordinates of the alleged strike.

Journalist: They say you killed a child, is that true?

IDF: Do you have the slightest idea how little that narrows it down?

that’s how life was in those cultures

What are “those cultures”? Because the person you replied to only mentioned GoT and that’s not a real culture.

Until there are enough grassroots progressive candidates to take over the democratic party the same way the tea party movement took over the republican party, and finally some progressive initiatives can pass into law, such as eliminating FPTP.

Please don’t take the “just vote democrats into office” answer to mean “sit tight and do nothing but vote” when voting is really the bare minimum activism you should be doing to preserve a democratic system.

I think we agree for the most part. I also didn’t mean to imply reading literature = intelligent because I also don’t believe that. The people I described are people in my life who I believe are incredibly intelligent, just not academic.

On my last point, it’s my realist take. I have EDS (excessive daytime sleepiness), so even if I really really believe I will enjoy a tougher read, sometimes I can’t stay awake long enough to get through a page. During those periods, I’ll take the easier self help or scifi book to keep me going. But yeah, challenging ourselves is part of the joy. When I was a struggling college student, I became very depressed for a while, and I distinctly remember picking up a philosophy book at the city library and reading an excerpt about hedonism and eudaimonism which changed my outlook for the better. The idea that we need both short term pleasures and long-term purpose to feel happy/fulfilled helped me work through the challenges, making sure I still went out and had fun in between, which now I look back on with some sense of fondness and pride. I see reading a tough book that interests me in the same way.

for his essays, there is an excellent anthology available from Penguin, ‘The World-Ending Fire’.

Awesome! I’ll add that to my reading list :)

I love this comment and I’ll look into Wendell Berry since I haven’t heard of him before.

To add on, I’ve met a lot of otherwise smart people (smart as in curious and skeptical to not accept things at face value) who frustratingly have no interest in literature to flesh out their own philosophies about the world.

They’ll go on a rant about this or that and I’ll chime in to say, for example, “oh are you talking about prisoners dilemma?” or “you’re basically describing nihilism” or “well, that person likely disagreed with you because you are using different definitions of the same word/concept” and they’ll look at me with an expression of ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about and I don’t care.’ I’d be so happy to explain things or recommend what to research to engage with topics they’re clearly passionate about, but it’s sad to see the curiosity end so soon when so many people have collectively devoted lifetimes on expanding the ideas they think they just invented.

So I won’t comment on what makes someone intelligent (because you’ll never find me calling the people I described unintelligent), but if you want to improve your own, I emphatically agree on reading literature, even fantasy like Tolkien, whatever you enjoy.

Banksy’s lawyer, Mark Stephens, pushed back on the report and said the artist did not accept many parts of the investigation as accurate.

Stephens argued that revealing the artist’s identity would compromise his safety, intrude on his private life, and undermine his ability to work freely.

Reuters said it decided to publish because of what it described as strong public interest in a figure who has had a significant and lasting impact on culture, the art world, and public discourse.

This is why we can’t have superheros nice things smh

I’ve never met someone who decided to write a history book as a hobby. Just wanted to say that’s awesome, hopefully you can make it accessible online to other history buffs who may enjoy it!

Unseen, which helps victims of modern slavery, called for more training for professionals. Lauren Saunders, the charity’s deputy director of frontline services, said: “The awareness of domestic servitude is really really low because it happens in private homes. I think there is a real lack of training for professionals on how to identify the signs of exploitation.”

The charity provided the Guardian with new figures suggesting a steep increase in the number of victims of modern slavery. Its helpline received reports of more than 6,600 victims in 2025, a 37% rise on 2024.

I remember when I was in school a lady representing the same or similar organization came to raise awareness about this kind of domestic modern slavery she herself had been a victim of. It’s so heartbreaking that this kind of slavery often falls through the cracks because it’s not what you think of when you imagine slavery. If you saw your average affluent American/European family (I’m not talking anywhere close to the Epstein class) with their live in maid/nanny, your first thought wouldn’t be that the “help” is literally a slave.

That was the worst (probably AI) article I’ve ever had the displeasure of trying to follow. They asked every question that’s been asked already on an event that happened last Christmas and followed up with the same speculation that has been rehashed a thousand times and added no new answers.

Lyft already has this feature, it’s called women+

I don’t think this issue is reflective of American gender wars in particular. I can think of dozens of countries I’d be way more terrified of being in a car alone with an unknown man as a woman. I’ve never had a bad encounter with any uber drivers in the US, but I have heard directly from drivers that drunk riders can be a fucking menace, so I don’t mind if female drivers would rather take their chances with drunk women vs drunk men.