It’s often the ones we most suspected.

a picture of Reagan with quotes of how Russia is the enemy, and tariffs are bad for everybody.

That’s particularly good.

Ensign is a perfectly cromulent rank to achieve during a Starfleet career.

Asking the real critical question.

Pre-beard, I only give them one episode.

We’ve nearly outlined the plot to a season of Picard at this point.

Now we just need a motive - say Beverly Crusher is asking nicely from a deep space in distress…

Oof. Hopefully a security professional will slap some sense into someone before it gets out of beta.

Damn.

Pinkertons on Wikipedia

Wow. Damn.

I’ve heard that war is good for business.

Lots of huge corporation owners are suffering from making a long series of head-up-their-own-ass stupid choices, right now.

Now they must choose between hiring experienced advisors to guide a slow chain of reasonable pro-social long term profitable choices - or starting a bloody war.

I know which choice I’m expecting.

“Blow up the damn ship, Picard!”

• First Contact

But really, Viola Davis’ entire performance carries the whole film and makes every important moment land.

Yes. Starfinder has planets, and some planets have caves.

Congratulations!

Infinity is effectively just bullshit.

I’m fond of pointing out to my students that there’s a very practical reason to care about “infinity” in math:

While nothing ever reaches “infinity”, things absolutely do reach a point where they violently fly to pieces and catch on fire.

So I teach my students to substitute the phrase “explodes and catches on fire” where they see an equation that “approaches infinity”.

I find it helps them pay attention to a subject that is otherwise bullshit. Infinity itself is bullshit, but it has a place in math: telling us when to quickly duck behind a good solid oak table.

This is a great plan, but it is critical to not be the person to notify each guest. Infinite calls to inconvenience infinite people sounds like hell.

I feel like my odds of avoiding getting my ass kicked are better inconveniencing just one person.

Well said. Particularly

out of a distaste for a harsh and cruel world

I want to respond (with agreement) to:

treat others as you want to be treated,"

• is, indeed silly. It’s meant as an overly simple default to grow from.

Treat others as they ask to be treated is much better.

But I do believe that both benefit from an intentional practice of self-empathy.

I have to constantly remind myself to treat me like I treat others.

I do, as well.

I treat others. I despise myself and have great empathy for others

I said that to myself before, as well.

But I discovered my empathy for others became surprisingly more effective after I started an intentional practice of self-empathy.

but that’s certainly not universal

Certainly. This is what worked for me, and my relationships.

The golden rule does not work. What if I like to be treated like shit?

Agreed. But it is a good default place to we start.

The real skill is empathy - to understand how the other person wants to be treated.

My empathy for others became much more effective after I started practicing empathy for myself.

It was a bit eye opening, to me, to realize how much impact a practice of self-empathy made in my relationships.

Lots of folks replying don’t seem believe in self empathy.

That makes me sad.

Self empathy is the foundation of empathy toward others.

The golden rule - treat others as I want to be treated - only really became effective, for my friends, after I learned to treat myself well.

Is self empathy distinct from self pity?

Absolutely.

Pity is when I wallow in how unfair everything is to me.

Empathy is when I realize I genuinely got dealt a shit hand, then give myself some time to recover, and then get on with life.

What if my pain made me a worse version of myself?

Then we would restore from backup, right?