I’m actually moving in the opposite direction. I was (still am really) a massive introvert, then I got really, really, really sick and realized I have zero support if something happens where I can’t take care of myself. I realized at the end of the day humans are a social species and we need some level of human connection to thrive.

I dig giant robots!
You dig giant robots!
We dig giant robots!
Chicks dig giant robots!

Then you get the folks coming out of the woodwork going “herp derp it’s really simple, you just have to buy a domain, then set up all these records, then you line up all eleven chaos crystals on the altar of despair and chant the forbidden words, then you…”

I think saying “It’s really simple” is actually terrible from a pedagogical point of view. It just makes the learner go “Well I guess I’m dumb because I don’t get such a simple concept.” I get people saying this are trying to be reassuring, but it should be remembered that pretty much anything is simple if you do it a million times. I’m sure brain surgery is simple for a brain surgeon, but I’m not a brain surgeon. I think it’s better to say "This is a long process with a lot of moving parts, but let’s take a breath and tackle it one step at a time and we’ll get through it. Sorry not ranting at OP, I just see this attitude all the time in IT and it bugs me.

I career changed into IT years after college, so I was already an adult when I entered my first trembling keystrokes into a blank terminal window. I vividly remember how intimidating it all felt.

Honestly if there’s one service you should be able to self host effortlessly it’s email. Email is basically your identity on the internet, but it’s so, so hard. Yes yes you can spin up an SMTP server pretty simply, but good luck getting anything past your ISP and into literally anyone else’s inbox.

Regarding pets, enjoy the time you have together and save the mourning for when they’re six feet under. I was sad about the aging of my dog, but realized that to her, humans are basically immortal constants of love and comfort. Looking at it that way made me feel a bit better.

Speaking of addictive thought processes, maladaptive daydreaming. I’ve half joked about it over on !worldbuilding@lemmy.world, but it really is addictive. Recently I realized it’s not healthy to reject reality and substitute my own. Even if my reality has mechs and this one doesn’t :(

I’m happy with Proton for the sole reason they aren’t Google. I don’t trust them completely, but I trust them more than I trust Google, and that’s all that matters. This doesn’t answer your question, but I thought I’d throw my opinion out there.

Yes, because it will fail otherwise. If only Linux nerds and tankies hang out here, than every community is just a slightly differently flavored tankie/linux community, and we’ll die on the vine. We want normies to see the value in the fediverse, because then they’ll start to ask why they should be giving all their privacy to big corporations.

We’re just hanging out waiting for trick or treaters to show up.

SAILING MISHAP!

Reminds me of Roller coaster tycoon.

DOCTOR OCTOGONAPUS BLAAAAAAGH

H*R has irreparably ruined my vocabulary. I’ll often say “ooh, dere is two of dem!” whenever there are unexpectedly two of something, and “NOOOTHIIING!” when I check outside for a package and it’s not there yet. Also “ARROW’d” as above.

I also often say “hellot” instead of “hello”.

Was just about to post this exact question lol. Judging by how often I say it, I’d have to say

IMMA FIRIN MAH LAZER!

Normies. I want decentralized social media to grow but to do that it needs people who aren’t self-selecting.

LOL I can’t tell you how many times I wanted to share an audio somewhere but reddit/random forum/whatever site wouldn’t let me. I’d have to make a video with that as the audio track. I don’t get it. Audio invariably takes up LESS space than a video with the same audio. Not even uploading but just embedding, too.

Months ago I ran across an interesting trick for quantifying the purchasing power of a wealthy person vs an average person, by scaling down their net worth (or salary IDK I’m not a money-ologist) then compare the thought process you’d undertake when purchasing an item of equivalent value.

So to get in the mind of a billionaire, lets say you have a net worth of $60K, so divide 60,000/1,000,000,000 to get 0.00006. Now how much does a jet cost, let’s say 1.5 million, just pulling a number out of thin air. Scale that down using the 0.00006 multiplier we get just $90. So a billionaire puts about as much thought into buying a jet as you might purchasing an OK pair of shoes or a water flosser. Not quite trivial but also not something you’re likely to mull over for weeks.

But let’s reverse that. What’s something you wouldn’t think twice about bying? Maybe a $2 candy bar from a vending machine? Divide that $2 dollars by .00006 to get over $33 thousand dollars. That’s a pretty common yearly gross salary for a lot of skilled workers, and a billionaire treats it with the same care you’d treat with a $2 vending machine purchase.

I’m into ham radio, which can be a deceptively expensive hobby. Some of the other guys in my local club have a significant amount of money, or at least a lot more money than I do, and that really does effect how they think and act. They’re all perfectly nice and helpful people, but sometimes they give advice that simply isn’t useful for a guy in my tax bracket. “Just get a resonant antenna” or “just put up a tower” they say, as though I have the land for a massive HF antenna with ground radials or a 40 ft tall mast. Bruh I live in a single-family home in an HOA.