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Success in life is 75% luck. Everything you control (dedication, tenacity, ambition, follow through, dependability) is in the first 25%. The remaining 75% is just luck that you have no control over. That doesn't mean you can slack on that first 25%, but even if you absolutely kill it on the first 25% you can still fail in life. I say this as someone that most would consider successful. Yes I worked hard to get where I am, but lots of people work far harder and have far less. I was born in the right place, with the right talents, in the right period in time/history, and with enough of the preferred genetics. Even had everything else been equal and I was born 20 years earlier or 20 years later, I wouldn't be nearly as successful.
It shouldn't be like this. Its not fair its like this, but this is reality.
A local YouTuber I follow said this once: "There's no guarantee that you'll succeed after working hard, but I guarantee that you won't if you don't".
It sounds cheap and all, but it finally ingrained itself to my brain because it's a less optimistic quote.
WDYM? I can be a railroad mogul one day, or an oil baron, an automotive entrepreneur, a sugar plantation owner, or even a privateer, if I hustle hard enough, right?
People are mostly dumb. Justice is largely a myth. Chaos reigns.
It's kind of amazing that we get people to collaborate as well as they do. The downside is that we need to appeal to the lowest common denominator of self-interest.
Not being able to stand up for yourself against people who can control/manipulate you financially.
I would say having less and less ability to stand up to corps that control you financially. It just keeps getting worse and worse with fewer and fewer options. I mean yeah there are people behind it but its the corp that gives them power.
Most Americans can't read past an 8th-grade level, and that shocks hell out of me. When I was in 6th-grade, standardized tests pegged me at "college level", which I figured was utter bullshit, thought I was being buttered-up somehow. Turns out it was true.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literacy_in_the_United_States
In 2023, 28% of adults scored at or below Level 1, 29% at Level 2, and 44% at Level 3 or above.[1] Adults scoring in the lowest levels of literacy increased 9 percentage points between 2017 and 2023. In 2017, 19% of U.S. adults achieved a Level 1 or below in literacy while 48% achieved the highest levels.[2]
Anything below Level 3 is considered "partially illiterate" (see also § Definitions below).[3] Adults scoring below Level 1 can comprehend simple sentences and short paragraphs with minimal structure but will struggle with multi-step instructions or complex sentences, while those at Level 1 can locate explicitly cued information in short texts, lists, or simple digital pages with minimal distractions but will struggle with multi-page texts and complex prose.[4] In general, both groups struggle reading complex sentences, texts requiring multiple-step processing, and texts with distractions.[4]
This explains so much about all the stupid shit I see. Most Americans literally aren't literate enough to follow a piece of literature, would struggle with any given novel.
“There was a time in this country, a long time ago, when reading wasn't just for fags and neither was writing. People wrote books and movies, movies that had stories so you cared whose ass it was and why it was farting. And I believe that time can come again!”
That's one reason so many people cling to quick catchy slogans and memes, or let good looking people spoonfeed them on TV. Reading Is soooo haaaaaarrrd!
Shower sex.
In the movies it looks so hot, but in reality, you've got a eyes and mouth full of soap and your freezing. 2/10
Rinse your hair and turn up the temperature?
Not too mention how slippery it is.
...in the wrong places
Depends on the shower set up.
One place I lived at had accessibility handles in the shower and a grippy floor, the shower head positioning and spray options kept both of us covered, and one of those heat lights that kept us both warm for the small bits that weren't in the spray. Most other places have had issues with one person not getting enough heat to stay warm, although a special shout out to the one hotel we stayed at with multiple showerheads.
I haven't run into the lubrication issue in showers or hot tubs, but also don't use condoms (monogamous relationships with other forms of birth control). Hot tubs were not public and we were very good about the water maintenance.
What comes to mind to me are two things:
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The absurdity of religion. I was raised Christian but always asked tough questions, to which people responded with the various platitudes religious people love to use. (The most popular being "God works in mysterious ways.") I missed out on a lot of sexual experience and mistreated a lot of people because I was taught to behave in certain ways, and I regret it deeply.
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How much I was lied to or information omitted by my educators growing up, particularly on history. I read history books for fun, and have learned over time about many things that were deliberately withheld from my education, like the Tulsa Massacre and the Battle of Blair Mountain, or stories of the Black Panthers' community building work, or the wholesale exploitation and destruction of indigenous people to make handful of people rich via the reservation system and Indian Ring.
How easy and fast it is to cook good food. My mom acted like making real mashed potatoes was sooo difficult.
Love me some mashes taters.
Get the right kind and they basically can't overcook. I just put mine on the stove at 5pm and just do other stuff until I'm hungry, at which point I just drain the water, add butter, pepper and nutmeg and mash the potatos in about 5 minutes lol. We also get frozen creamed spinach in kind of a pellet form so that its easy to dose, throw some of that in the microwave and it's actually a solid meal. Even more so when you start playing with other things to add. I like to put some cheese in the mashed potatoes as well, especially fresh Parmesan, but I also tried adding some leftover beef stock today which was delicious. Seasoning the spinach with a little bit of nutmeg and pepper also goes a long way.
Sorry, somehow I produced a wall of text there. Thanks for coming to my ted talk or something
Many adults have a much self-reflection and critical thinking skills as a 3-year-old.
Also, you can be highly intelligent yet very dumb.
Everyone wants something from you and they want it NOW, but when you need something it's like pulling teeth to even get acknowledgement.
All the adults in my life with the exception of a very few are exactly as stupid or far stupider than I thought when I was a kid.
That "adults" are just kids that got older. Same goes for "old people". Everyone was once a 14 year old. There is no dividing line where you suddenly become an adult, and there is no dividing line between being an adult and being old.
We're all born, and we live a life of days, months years, decades... it's just you and your one, single life. You're always going to be you.
Make this one life count. Don't wait. Don't procrastinate. Make shit happen. You'll regret it if you don't.
Nobody cares. You're homeless? Nobody cares. You just got dumped? Nobody cares. You're sick? Nobody cares. You're struggling? Nobody cares.
Sure you might have some friends who care in a very superficial way, but when the going gets tough, everybody leaves.
There's just no hope, and you're on your own.
You need better friends, but I don’t want to discount your feelings sometimes it is that way, and I’m sorry for it, but there are good people out there
If you'll forgive the cliche "Adulthood is realizing that Cheese is expensive and SO many people are on cocaine".
How many mundane things you have to do just to stay alive and well. Skipping things means more problems down the road. Every few years your energy capacity just lowers by 50% and you will never get it back. People often don't follow their own advice. Most people will never change because they won't want to challenge their own beliefs about themselves. Most people have rigid beliefs about the world because of the same reason.
The consequences of wear and tear on the body. If I'm conscious, something hurts.
That despite all the progress humanity has made, bigotry in all forms is still a major problem.
That highschool never ended for most people and the shitty cliques and drama continue for decades.
Bowling For Soup said it better than I ever could:
The whole damn world is just as obsessed
With who's the best dressed and who's havin' sex Who's got the money, who gets the honeys
Who's kinda cute and who's just a mess
And you still don't have the right look
And you don't have the right friends
Nothin' changes but the faces, the names and the trends
High school never ends
That my future is dependent on thousands of people I don't even know
Societies controlled by capitalists are openly trying to murder you. Nobody who survives those societies into middle age cares enough to help one another or even organize for their own betterment. Capitalists are cannibals and you can never trust them or let your guard down while they're nearby.
Im not worried about how the average pedestrian acts. Its totally the average driver.
Taxes.
Life is only shades of gray it’s not a marvel movie with clear cut Good and Bad