This is not a question for Lemmy.

Could be anything from dry eyes to glaucoma. Get it checked.

Ideas like this haven’t come up for the first time. I expect this idea occurred to Valve and they thought it was not worth the investment of money/manpower/infrastructure.

Valve would either have to publish on Google Play. That would put it in the role of a developer and Valve is not really pushing on its developer role significantly. A huge cut off sales then goes to google.

Or Valve will have to try to make an alternative store… And that is no small feat. Most people will not sideload apps or install other store fronts. I imagine the proportion of android game sales that Valve can get into will be tiny enthusiast communities, and that won’t be anywhere near enough to pay the bills. On this alternative store, Valve will have to get developers to make games…or again they will have to consider developing games in house to get the ball rolling. Their best bet would likely be to use their existing IP to make mobile spin-offs (DotA card game? Or a wild-rift type MOBA? CS:GO turn based tacticle game? Or try to compete with CoD for the FPS market?).

I can’t see any combination of the above that seem like probable success for Valve. It’s admirable that they’re sticking to their niche and what they know. Pushing further into the handheld gaming and console market has been a much better option for them and they’re trying hard. Even in that aspect, the Steam Deck is universally praised…and is selling roughly 2.5% as many consoles as the Nintendo Switch. And no one I know IRL knows about the Steam Deck (other than my brothers, who bought one after I told them I had pre-ordered mine).

Podcasts are my thing. I’ve got you covered.

Depends on what you’re into:

More or Less: Behind the Stats - analysis of some statistic from the news

The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos - what science says about how to be happy

The Audio Long Read - long form articles from the Guardian newspaper

You Are Not So Smart - cognitive science related. How we know things, our biases, how our thinking is flawed, etc.

Dan Snow’s History Hit - One of the few history podcasts I really like

Short History Of… - a short history of some specific thing

The Forum - expert panel discussion about some topic

Behind the Bastards - Very well known podcast focusing on some bastard personality

CrowdScience - in depth investigation of a listener science question

Radiolab - in depth investigation of a topic of their interest. Quite broad scope.

Unexpected Elements - a very varied mix of discussions around a science topic from the news

Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford - Tim Harford is the podcast king for me. This show is a deep dive into something that went wrong in news or history, and an investigation of all the systemic failures around it. It tries to show how blame is hardly ever warranted on a single person and the systems are at fault.

The Martin Lewis Podcast - UK consumer advocate and saving guru

Show Me The Meaning! A Wisecrack podcast - a couple of philosophers talk about a movie

The Inquiry - a deep dive into a news story

Revisionist History - Malcolm Gladwell’s podcast about a range of different things

The Law Show - UK legal system issues

The Infinite Monkey Cage - comedy science panel show

The Supermassive Podcast - space related podcast

File on 4 investigates - detailed story from deep investigative journalism

Thinking Allowed - light philosophical ramblings

When It Hits the Fan - two public relations experts talk about PR issues from current events

Discovery - science related. Currently mostly doing shows about “a life scientific” I.e. talking to a scientist about their life

Overthink - philosophy made accessible

What It’s Like To Be… - a person from a particular occupation talks about their job

People Fixing the World - people from different parts of the world fixing some local problem in their community in a creative way

Hidden Brain - my absolute favourite. Cognitive science related. Explains how the brain works and how to use the understanding to male your own love better.

Within Reason Your Parenting Mojo - evidence based parenting. Can be a very dry long-winded research presentation, but this has improved my parenting (and life) immensely

sideways - different ideas and how to look at things differently

Darknet Diaries - stories from the dark underbelly of the internet

The Reith Lectures - once a year short lecture series, but well worth listening to the backlog

Evil Genius with Russell Kane - comedians discuss how some villains from history weren’t so bad and how some heroes from history were terrible people

Owls at Dawn - ramblings of a couple of philosophers

Sound of Gaming - excellent music show about music soundtracks from videogames

Playing god? - medical ethics discussion

30 Animals That Made Us Smarter - this series has ended but it is worth listening to the backlog

50 Things That Made the Modern Economy - this series has ended but it is worth listening to the backlog

A History of the World in 100 Objects - this series has ended but it is worth listening to the backlog

I would also recommend the podcast series made to accompany the Chernobyl and Last of Us TV series.

S Town - a nice fiction mini series drama story.

Your caveman brain. People think they’re educated an enlightened and everything they do now is so well thought out. Nope, the caveman is in the driving seat for all of us. Even your most high level meetings and interviews are influenced by how hungry, horny, or hurt you are by a teasing comment yesterday. Everyone is looking to establish dominance at any cost, when you don’t really need to.

Oldest.

There’s a podcast by Malcolm Gladwell where he says data shows the single best predictor of successful college application or success with college sports is your month of birth. Being oldest in the class comes as a huge advantage and is making many American families “red shirt” their child by putting them in school a year later; and this making them the oldest child in the class all the way through.

The internet had niche use for enthusiast nerds. An internet connected handheld device was the game changer.

There are a million possibilities and no single right answer. Strangers on the internet are not going to be able to tell you. Strangers on the internet certainly don’t know the dynamic between the two of you.

Write down the possibilities (you’ve mentioned some in your post). Think of what seems fair to you. Show her the possibilities and talk about it and agree something.

My wife came from a family that considered it the man’s duty to pay for everything and that women have to protect themselves from exploitation by guarding their own money. Conversations about sharing expenses were very unwelcome and showing love meant spending a lot on luxury gifts. She used to earn a third of what i did and had more disposable income than me since bills left me with little disposable. You could end up with 2 people at different levels of affluence in the same house if you are very defensive and financially isolationist. It’s taken a long time to change that to a collaboration to work through life together with shared resources.

The most “scientific” way in a full commitment would be to put an equal % of both salaries into a “bills” account, then put how much you both want to save into a savings account and then divide the leftover disposable equally between yourselves.

Or if you’re too early to be fully committed then you can start with continuing to pay for everything or ask her for a flat amount contribution.

Just know that money is one of the biggest sources of friction on a relationship and most people at not on the same page. It takes work and talking to get to the same page (that means talking to her… Not us).

Finding your place in society and connecting with others can be really hard sometimes, and no one helps people who get it this badly wrong. It’s just easier to ignore, avoid and ridicule. Hope this poor kid figures it out.

Mailbox.org

Its cheap and a single xsolution for replacing mail, calendar, contact sync, cloud drive, task list, etc.

You’ve described what Reddit went through. I think that’s basically the process of maturation of any social platform. Reddit attracts (I.e. automatically subscribes) users to the default subs and so those are the biggest mainstream areas. Most people who want something more (and how I have used reddit for many years) move to smaller subs and find a much better environment there. Or communities break out to make smaller versions (true gaming, true movies, true fitness, etc).

Basically I don’t think any of this is platform specific, it’s just how things evolve online. Certain features judge development in a certain direction, but in that regard Lemmy should be much better without bullshit algorithms and disguised advertising posts… For now.

Eternal September perhaps? As the population grows, the culture changes. It’s unavoidanle to an extent (if Lemmy keeps growing… But don’t we want that?).

A car is far more comfortable and less noisy than a plane.

I’m very confused by OP. Wouldn’t speaking to the individual have answered the question about the toilet paper? Isn’t that usually what psychiatrists do?

I listen to so many, its hard to pick one. My current favourite is probably Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford. He does really good podcasts and I’ve followed him over from his BBC Radio 4 podcast (More or Less) which I also love.

Cautionary Tales is about a major screw up from history and the systemic problems that caused it. It takes away from society’s bias to lay blame at the feet of the last known individual involved and looks at the whole causal chain leading up to an event.

I did something similar to you and OP.

I commuted to university. I didn’t even like my university and their teaching program was incredibly poor. Money was incredibly tight. I never fit into the culture. The whole thing was still an experience in finding myself. I found I didn’t like cliques, didn’t like drinking/partying culture and just wanted quiet and intimate friendships. And that’s OK. University was full of difficulties and a poor experience for a lot of people. At least OP got through OK with good grades.

The good news for OP is that life gets better. Post-uni was the best time ever for me…people around me were more grown up, I finally had money, working life was much better and I had freedom to pursue what I wanted. University sucked for me and I got over it quickly and life has been getting much better since. Just look forward to how awesome your life can be from here on.

I even went back to university for a postgraduate degree much later and had a much better academic experience. Also at that point I didn’t care at all about getting into “student life” and just enjoyed studying.

Good luck OP.