Quinzel

1. Because people who post on LinkedIn ARE insufferable 2. Their content is AI generated which is also insufferable.

Basically the internet has gone full circle. It started out pretty shit, got useful for a short time, and is now back to being pretty shit. I don’t use it for much more than emails and banking and occasionally doom scrolling which is becoming less because I find AI generated content so off putting.

I don’t even use generic Google for study purposes any more because so much on there is just AI generated bullshit.

Sorry it was a joke but actually the foot fetish thing is super real and I often think perhaps I should start an OnlyFans just for my feet. Except my toes are kind of short and stubby and I’m not sure if there’s a market for that.

I work in healthcare by day, but I have an OnlyFans for my feet that makes me an additional $17,000 a month on average.

Yes. I am currently on annual leave and have felt anxious the whole time about the fact that I’ve not done enough

just follow the paths that interest you. Live an interesting life

I read:

- The Courage to be Disliked. - Moral Tribes - Crazy like us - Careless People - Madness Made Me - The righteous mind: Why good people are divided by politics and religion.

And a few that were on my 2025 list that I didn’t make it through, and are on my list for 2026 include: - Team of Rivals - Behave - Why Greatness cannot be planned.

Hopefully I’ll get through those three books before the end of Feb when I go back to Uni, and won’t have time to read for leisure for about 7 months.

I don’t think it’s luck. I think it’s access to resources and strategy.

I found my job on a job search website. I originally applied for it in 2013 and got rejected. I got the balls to give it another crack in 2017 and I got it. It’s a technician/clinical role in healthcare - an industry I decided when I was quite young that I just had to be in (unsure why these days I was so fixated on it, I think back then I was very altruistic).

Interviewing was different. They asked a lot of weird questions like “if you were a sandwich, what flavour would you be?” And “you need to find out the weight of a boeing 737 but you don’t have scales, how are you going to figure it out?” (I said “I’d just google it”). I was perplexed by these questions and thought I’d bombed out. The other thing they had me do was a 10 minute presentation on why I wanted the job, and what I hoped to gain. Still to this day, I think I did nail the presentation. I kept it clean. A few years after I got my Job, one of the guys on the panel of my interview was talking to me giving me a pep talk for an exam I needed to sit, and I asked him why they asked me those weird questions and he said “we just wanted to see how you’d handle stress and ambiguity” he also told me I did one of the best interviews he’d ever seen. That was pretty good feedback years after the matter but I’m never quite sure if he was just being nice.

In terms of surviving, healthcare especially the area I work in is not for the faint hearted, some days it really is utter carnage and overwhelming. Staff can be arseholes to each other, and management don’t care if you were hoping to go home on time - you’re probably going to stay late. I cope with my job in several ways, some of them consciously others less so. I exercise every day, it helps with my health but also my mood, and gives me time out. I study things that are separate to what I do for work - like planning for a back up career. But at work, I also dissociate, not consciously but I do, I turn off my emotions at work, and I don’t care too much about anything or anyone. It’s not to be unkind, it’s like self preservation or something. I also just treat my work as the money generating goal that it is. My identity, my aspirations, and my self-worth are not tied to my work, work is a thing I do to get money to live. I am no longer as altruistic as I was when I originally went into healthcare.

I think this would make for a good reality TV show so long as the producers didn’t make it all fake and scripted and shit.

Depends on how busy I am in life. Sometimes I can read for like 5 or 6 hours across the span of a day. Other times 5 minutes, or nothing at all for weeks. Currently on a reading buzz and feeling wholesome from it.

Waking up at 5am everyday to walk my puppy because he deserves his walks and it turns out so do I

I have noticed!! I don’t mind the emoji’s too much. But I do find it really disconcerting. But the AI prompting me actually really causes me an inner rage. The kind of rage I’ve sometimes felt towards robot answer machines when calling banks etc when you really just want to talk to a human. I get the same robot rage!!

My own mouth. I always say too much. That’s what makes it bad.

Safari. Because at least you can access most other services from that. The navigation might be a bit shit, but you’re still connected.

I know nothing about programming and have been using AI to build a prototype, a MVP, based on some hand drawn wireframes for a business idea I have been thinking about since 2022, where I suddenly thought up my “solution”.

It’s been an interesting experience because I’ve tried to learn coding before got bored way more quickly. This time, the AI suggested I use Swift. I genuinely didn’t know if that was a good or bad suggestion so I went with it.

And it’s taking me AGES is not an efficient way to develop anything! Not even a prototype, but at this stage I don’t have the money to pay anyone to do it for me, so I’ll persevere because I actually genuinely believe in my idea, but I actually am finding it fun and rewarding. Every time I run my code and find it works I get a buzz out of that. And every time AI generates something shit that doesn’t work, I’m forced to actually look at the code and figure out what the problem is, and how to fix it.

Slowly but surely, it’s like… even though I’m doing something in a language I don’t understand, I’m starting to learn what bits of it mean because they either lead to an outcome, or they recur in a similar pattern that my brain goes “oh ok, that’s what that bit of code does”.

It’s probably a terrible way to learn, but I’m still learning. I’m still building an MVP. Even if the whole business idea is a massive failure, I’ve learned a little bit about Swift, I’ve also learned the value of human programmers and I can tell you one thing - if my business is a success and I can get it off the ground, I’ll be investing big time in human programmers and I won’t mind at all if they use AI to assist them if it makes them more efficient on whatever.

I don’t really care if it’s vibe-coding, or AI assisted programming, it’s another way of acquiring a skill, and as far as I can tell, at a minimum it lowers the barrier to entry to coding in an unconventional way.

Oh thank you! I had noticed that I had a section of my code that it highlighted with a warning that it didn’t work for iPhone 16.

I’m just trying to get a minimum viable product/prototype together at this stage, so hopefully I can actually pay a programmer (or a few programmers) to make it compatible with as many devices as possible, as well as secure etc. I know as a rookie I absolutely do not have the capacity to build the exact product I’ve got in my mind, but I at least need something tangible to add to my pitch. I appreciate the insight though!

Haha - fair comment!

Thanks for your info! I actually do find it helpful.

Vive coding is a myth

I am discovering that! Thanks for the link. I am determined to build my app/product. I think with my MBA in digital transformation, and mulling over the "problem" since 2022, i've thought of my solution. Now I just need to put together the resources to sell my idea and product in such a way that I can get some money to indeed execute it well... As they say though, most start ups/businesses fail. I don't mind failing, you still learn something new. My biggest limitation here is literally programming. I believe I can over come that with motivation and persistence.

Thanks again for your input. I am indeed learning swift :)

Turned my afternoon unhealthy snack time to an apple and a walk to the car after work by parking 1km away from the work place and putting an apple in my bag so everyday I have instantly got an apple, and am also forced to walk.

Morning me (that wakes up full of good intentions and motivation) sets up strategies for lazy afternoon me so lazy afternoon me can still be lazy but achieves the minor goals morning me see out to achieve.

Only people who have a strong desire to control others but a weak resolve on how to effectively do that exercise their control with fear and violence directed towards children.

Trying to teach a child that hitting people isn’t OK by hitting them is actually one of the most absurd things I’ve ever heard.

What are you teaching them? You can’t hit people, but I can… because why? Your bigger, or older?

If your only tool is fear, you got nothing once that kid stops fearing you. Good luck with that.

Hey, I’m a parent of a child with severe Tourettes and ADHd. I just thought I’d share my 2c worth:

While all kids struggle with disinhibition, it sounds like your child might have a harder time with inhibiting unwanted behaviours (so struggling with disinhibition). This is actually quite common in a lot of children, and nothing to be too concern about, although if it’s disruptive to his own education and opportunities for socialising with other kids, you will need some form of extra support. Your child is not naughty or bad on purpose, rather, a better way to frame it is their nervous system might be a bit more reactive and a little bit more impulsive that some other kids. Understanding that can help inform better strategies for managing it.

My main question is, is your child showing any signs of trying to regulate himself already that you can leverage? It took me a while to realise that my son was regulating in ways I wasn’t recognising because I didn’t understand his struggle. An example was that for a while he had a tic where every time he picked up a pen he had the urge to throw it at a wall. So he stopped using pens. The school panicked and tried to say he was autistic and regressing. But once someone eventually asked him why he wouldn’t hold a pen, he just told us, it was because he didn’t want to throw them. Once they realise that, they gave him a computer to type with instead. So looking for the ways he may be already regulating himself that might not make sense to you but make sense to him will also start to help you understand what is driving the behaviours.

Another point I want to make though is that mainstream school is genuinely a very damaging place for kids who struggle with behaviour/conduct issues/disinhibition. Schools isolate these children, and they ostracise them, thereby sabotaging the child’s access to equitable education, limiting the opportunities to form healthy friendships with peers and destroying their self-esteem, basically effectively reinforcing antisocial behaviours. I think if you have the resources you should consider alternative schooling options like Montessori type schools, private schools, private tutoring, or even home schooling.

I can guarantee your child is probably an incredibly creative, wonderful person with so much potential, but he’s probably just wired slightly different. Schools don’t foster creativity, they foster uniformity, they don’t foster curiosity, they foster reciting of facts unquestioningly. Western schooling systems also teach people to mindlessly follow authority without questioning it, which also has its repercussions. Your child is probably not the real issue when they’re at school. School will be the issue. Schools/teachers often know very little about paediatric brain development and behaviour. They treat children like mini-adults. Furthermore, teachers are often incredibly overworked under-resourced and underpaid. Even when they want to do better for each individual child, they are not equipped to.

My final piece of advice is that no matter how deeply frustrating the behaviours continue to manage your child’s behaviour with firm but fair boundaries, lots of love and reassurance that they are loved, lots of reassurance that they’re intelligent and full of potential, and a great deal of patience.

He will naturally grow out of a lot this behaviour. It’s his self-esteem and self efficacy you want to protect a long the way.

Reddit.

Even though reddit is full of absolute weirdos.

Blockudoku

I am brainstorming an App to disrupt an incumbent and quite frankly outdated industry with old practices that are detrimental to consumers.

When you realise your start up isn’t working, the smartest thing you can do is either sell it to someone who has the resources to do perhaps what you cannot to make it a viable product or service, or give up and move on to something new.

To persist endlessly in something that isn’t going to do anything but drain your resources financially and emotionally, is a much bigger failure in the long run. What do you have to lose if you persist with this start up that’s going nowhere vs, what do you have to lose if you just cut your losses now?

Honestly, most start ups actually fail. It’s a part of the process. People always think their start up will be the one that doesn’t fail, but it’s because humans are inherently over-optimistic about their businesses. They always think they’ll have them established more quickly, for much less money and work than it actually takes.

Take the lessons you’ve learned from this try, and try and apply them to a new idea or start up.

If it makes you feel better, I too started a business last year. However, I knew it would likely fail, but I still wanted to give it a go to see if it would work for my lifestyle and I was using it predominantly as a tax deduction anyway. After about 6 months however, I realised my business model was quite frankly not sustainable for the long term and was probably going to cost me more than I had to gain from persisting. Thus, I applied for a job somewhere, and I am in the process of shutting my business down.

Does that mean I’m done with trying new things? No. It just means, I’ll do things differently next time. For now, I’m taking the time to ‘recover’ from the burnout, and I’m thinking about new ideas for things I can try later down the track when I’m ready to go again.

From what I learned in my MBA that specialised in digital transformation I would advise against developing a product where the value proposition depends on the user adopting a new behaviour. To me that suggests your product isn’t fulfilling a need, and thus, is not really of value to the user. I know you sometimes hear people say things like create something people don’t even realise they want/need - but it still needs to fulfil a need/desire, just one people haven’t identified as a problem, or a thing that can be done easier/better/more efficient.

Changing behaviour of people, en masse is actually kind of difficult. You’d probably need to actually hire behaviour analysts/other behaviour experts to affect the kind of change you’re hoping for, which really… if you need to go to those lengths to get people to use your product, your product is shit. Fail fast and then start again.

The best manager I ever had was a compassionate man. He was super kind and patient, but he was also firm and fair. He was consistent in enforcing rules and regulations, but he also understood human factors really well. He was not authoritarian. He was more authoritative and he really acted more like a mentor than a manager. He knew how to give feedback in a way that was able to be received and actioned. He was also approachable and liked having random chats with people and getting to know people. I admired him a lot. He was the best manager I’d ever had and when he left the whole workplace took a turn for the worst. His replacement was just a huge doofnugget.

“Thinking, Fast and slow” by Daniel Kahneman

Surprised no one has recommended it. It’s like an explanation of how we think, and how we should think. My only caution with this book is it represents “thinking” from a Westernised concept of rationality and it also represents western cognitive biases. A lot of the research done by Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky was only studied among westernised, educated, industrialised, rich, democratic populations which only actually makes up about 12% of the world population. It’s certainly not going to apply to every culture across humanity, but - it’s super helpful.

Having awareness of cognitive biases helps you recognise them in yourself, but also leverage them in other people and that’s power.

It’s easy to answer the question of worst job… I worked at a small private hospital that did mostly orthopaedic, and cosmetic procedures, and lots of little day case procedures as well. It was hands down the most toxic work environment I’d ever experienced ever by a solid long shot. People were insanely nasty to each other and would do quite frankly nasty and sometimes highly unethical and dangerous stuff to each other to try set each other up for failure. I literally changed my practice in the circumstances because I felt uncomfortable leaving my fluids unsupervised in a warming cupboard because I was genuinely concerned someone might maliciously spike my bags with something that could harm a patient. Even years after leaving I never open or run through fluids until the moment I’m about to connect them to a patient, when I can make sure there’s been no tampering. I did not work at that hospital for long. Even though the pay was great, I had more suicidal thoughts whilst working in that hospital than I’d ever had before.

The best place is harder to define. I work in hospitals and there’s always a lot of really annoying workplace politics that detract from the actual cool fun aspects of my job in every hospital. They’re all basically a little bit shit. However, I’d say one hospital in particular just had really excellently planned shifts and respected people’s right to go home at the end of the day. Even though it was less exciting than some other places, I just never felt under appreciated, and because my shifts gave me enough time to complete all my tasks I always felt like I had enough time to do stuff without rushing around like a headless chicken.

No I would not apply to another position at a company that ghosted me. I too see it as a symptom of corporate dysfunction.