So you're proudly uninformed because you don't need to be... but are also informed enough to state that this whole thing is overblown... based on having learned one fact about the matter...? Pick a lane!
dmention7
I try to make it work for me--I really do. But it's just never worth the time & effort.
Recently, I asked our company-hosted instance of Copilot to draft up an application note for a new product we are releasing to help get my documentation juices flowing. This product is well documented on our internal sharepoint/teams/outlook/onedrive servers that Copilot scrapes, as well as some public facing press releases and marketing content, so I asked Copilot to draft up an app note for this product specifically by name.
Its first draft had tons and tons of info that was just straight-up wrong or super vague. So I refined the prompt asking it to cite sources for each paragraph. Lo and behold, there were 9 citations, and 8 of them were general technology references or competitor products.
Maybe it's a skill issue, but I can't get over the fact that this shit is not just so factually wrong, but so confidently wrong.
The only correct answer besides Twizzlers and sunflower seeds.
I'm gonna go against the grain and declare for team Cheddar Pretzel tho!
I'm not sure if I pulled down that exact compilation, but it includes the videos, yeah I enjoy those old music videos as much or more than the show itself!
I think what happened is:
-Initially it was terrible, but it was not imposed on you, so you just ignored it and kept typing as if it weren't even there, unless you legit could not figure out how to spell a word.
-Then it got better and gave decent suggestions occasionally, so people started integrating into their typing workflow as an assistant to quickly complete common words, or to figure out longer/more complex words.
-Somewhere along the way it began to impose itself on your typing to the point where it was expected that you would accept its suggestions the majority of the time. So even if it's right 98% of the time, having to manually fight with it every other sentence is a MAJOR hassle
As a simple illustration of the last point, I remember the default behavior was that if you started to backspace an autocorrected word, the system assumed it got it wrong and let you fix it. Now the default behavior is to ignore you and keep autocorrecting until you tap a special key to insist you know what you are doing (at least on my Samsung phone)
There is a lot in this comment, and unfortunately Lemmy is not the greatest forum for in-depth, point-by-point debate; but I did want to at least let you know that I read it all and appreciate you taking the time to write a thoughtful post, even if I don't fully agree.
I do want to address this specifically though:
You could just be doing the same thing with less steps by using a Debit Card. But, the former activity boosts your credit score, and the latter activity does not… Despite both people being equally responsible.
A credit score is not, and should be construed as, a measure of responsibility (I see this line of thought a lot!) It's simply a measure of how risky it is to loan you money based on your established history of being loaned money. (You and I would probably fully agree about it being inappropriate for credit scores to be used for anything outside that scope, however!)
Fundamentally, credit is a tool. Like any tool, it can be used wisely to your benefit, or carelessly to your detriment. If you treat a credit card as though your credit line is money you did not otherwise have, then yeah you are not going to have a good time (well, not financially at least). If you treat it as a layer of insulation between your bank account and the rest of the world, well the consumer protection benefits of a credit card versus a debit card are a no-brainer. That includes things like theft, as well as an emergency expense that may take you a few days or weeks to arrange cash to fund.
Calling credit card use "going into debt" feels similar to saying that wearing a seatbelt is "tethering yourself down". Maybe literally true in some sense, but also part of responsible daily life in another sense. I mean, if I pay for my electricity bill with a credit card, surely you wouldn't tell me I was going into debt to keep my lights on?
I actually do use a local credit union for my checking and basic banking needs. They are pretty good for things like auto loans. Funnily enough though, they were my first stop when mortgage shopping, and not only were they offering over a point above market interest rates, it felt like I was the first person in a decade who had tried to apply for a mortgage with them, and they weren't sure what to do with me. So yeah, banking locally can have its perks, but it can also be hit or miss in my experience--definitely not a panacea and did not give me confidence in using them for major transactions.
I mean, "going into debt" is kind of charged language and I don't think most people would apply that to using a credit card and paying it off monthly, even if it's technically correct.
And to the second, If you had to choose between two people to lend money to today: A person who just today made the last payment on a mortgage after 30 years of on-time payments, or the identical person who finished paying off their mortgage 2 years ago and has not made a mortgage payment since, I don't think it's absurd to suggest the former is a slightly safer bet to lend money to. But again, it's effectively a rounding error in your score.
Your score might go down a bit when you pay off the loan, because those large accounts are no longer being reported as active (and therefore no longer reflecting your current record of creditworthiness). But it's generally a small amount compared to the benefit of having that positive record on your history, and definitely not enough to impact your ability to secure a new line of credit.
Don't get me wrong--there's a whole bunch of legitimate complaints about how credit scores are calculated and used, but it's also pretty simple to maintain a solid credit score without going into debt. In fact, having that available credit and not carrying a debt benefits your score.
Elon Musk is the homeopathic principle applied to leadership.
No offense, but you're misinformed.
You get a good credit score by borrowing money and paying it back faithfully, not by being perpetually in debt. I carry a mortgage but no other debt, and pay off every credit card balance before charges or interest accrue, and my credit score is solidly in the top range.
I know it's a crazy concept, but to be considered a safe person to lend money to, you have to actually borrow it sometimes and prove that you will pay it back.
This is missing a panel in the middle:
Sauerkraut, smoked sausage, onion, a bit of sharp cheddar, and a drizzle of franks red hot is honestly a god-tier pizza.