Trying to find my place in an alienating world.
Matrix user - @seeingred:genzedong.xyz
I’m in a similar boat. I ended up getting rid of my car and a bunch of other expenses that were not bringing me joy and were a drain on me. As a result, I’ve been able to save a lot as a bulwark against the need to constantly perform. It doesn’t help though, because I still need to go to a place I don’t want to be for too many hours per day. It’s not like I could survive indefinitely if I stop working.
I would like to have a kid, but can’t afford to. My wife also is trying to get her career off the ground and so we are not really in the best position. I’m well off enough for our current life, but if we move to a bigger space and have to start paying for all that is required, the math doesn’t math anymore.
Maybe in a few years we’ll reconsider before we are too old
It really is like this. I have a friend who’s family grew up in the Soviet Union, and left during the collapse (he was born after). He is vehemently against Communism, but he’s also strongly against capitalism. It’s a bit frustrating to talk with him because he’ll agree with me right up until I start to talk strategy or historical context around the Soviet Union.
You too!
Flow batteries seem very promising, but the chemistry required needs more scale/external funding to be viable.
There were some thermal battery retrofits for coal power plants using carbon and steam that looked interesting in principal, though cost and logistics are not fully solved problems, and the round trip efficiency was rather bad compared to other storage methods.
There were also some molten metal batteries that have been working towards useful scale over the past decade or so. They had cheap and abundant matetial inputs and significantly long charge discharge.
There are many neat options out there. I think researching and building out each as they become viable would help to improve system resiliency and long term viability.
Over the last few weeks I’ve been playing Microtopia which is a game about ants that are microprocessors/mechanical. It is a factory simulator, but the base components are the ants and production buildings.
The ants have a lifespan, so you are managing them as a resources that is also required to make more of themselves. And there are not any belts or inserters as in most games, but instead the ants act as the logistics system, the resource gathering system, and the productive system.
It’s a slightly fresh take on the genre, and it was fun to learn the novel systems. However, it really could use some QOL and some options for lower graphics settings.
These sorts of games are fun for me because they allow me to solve small problems that slowly lead to complex systems. I really enjoy the feeling of accomplishment from building something complex like this.