#you don't tell someone that they need to go against their own code of ethics

[agoddamnedrayofsunshine]

Might delete this later because I'm just getting this off my chest but.

DISCLAIMER: I am not telling anyone to go vegan here. I'm not anybody's boss, these are my personal thoughts and mine alone. If you don't wanna go vegan, don't.

I've got no beef (pun intended) with any non-vegan so please don't come at me with your pitchforks and torches, I ain't gonna throw fake blood on grandma's fur coat.

I'm also not saying that any vegan clothing is inherently cruelty free just because no animal was involved. Human suffering in the clothing industry is a massive problem that I hate.

I know Tumblr has this huge irrational hate boner for vegans, but these posts about "vegans need to advocate for wool/honey/whatever non vegan thing" need to stop. Like seriously, you aren't giving us some sort of gotcha we haven't heard before.

Like no. There are options for clothing other than wool or leather that are not microplastics. The vegans that abstain from wool don't just coat themselves in it.

So no. Vegans are not going to suddenly advocate for not-vegan food or clothing materials just because some of the alternatives are plastic. You can HAVE both non-plastic and non-animal clothes. Many vegans (myself included) also have no issue with heirloom or secondhand animal product clothing because it's not like it's new material. It's already here. Use it up.

I won't pretend I have all the answers either, and I'm honestly not looking to debate anyone because the choice of using animal products or not is yours. But FFS, it is insulting to say vegans need to advocate for something that explicitly goes against our beliefs just because you think we should.

/steps off soapbox

Kthxbye

[vorpal-fnord]

you clearly have no prior experience in art lmao

I write in my free time and have been commissioned to write stories for people several times. I also look forward to the day when GPT3's successor is able to spit out high-quality, coherent, novel-length text about whatever we want.

My partner is an artist by trade. I still think empowering more people to express themselves through prompt engineering is going to open the door to a lot of really cool stuff, even if some people will want to wait for generators that trained on art acquired in more ethical ways according to their personal moral code.

I'm not worried about humans being replaced by computers.

I think it sucks that the jobs that are most threatened by these new developments aren't the ones that had a lot of build up and anticipation around them like truck-driving or factory-line work. I think a lot of people were blind-sided when A.I. art turned out to be lower-hanging fruit than a dozen other kinds of menial jobs that might cause short-term disruption for the current work force, but which wouldn't lead to the tough questions about something as quintessentially human as art being encroached upon.

But what's hard for humans is not necessarily hard for computers.

I get why people, especially people who make their living from art, are worried. I'm not going to pretend that there's not a scary uncertainty hanging in the air right now.

But my hope is that this will be more like chess in the long term.

The average cell phone running the right software, is a better chess player than any human being on earth.

And yet, people still play chess. People still make a living playing chess. People still learn the game, and find it interesting to discuss, and go to chess clubs, and make Youtube videos about it, and fall in love with chess. The chess A.I. has even opened up amazing avenues nobody expected, like allowing people to examine games between grandmasters and see mistakes they made or alternate ways the games might have gone.

Don't misunderstand me. This new technology will be disruptive. When all the dust is settled, things will probably look quite different for artists in 100 years.

But humans still weight lift even though the ox is stronger than we'll ever be. Humans still sprint even though the cheetah is faster than we'll ever be. Humans still ride horses for the pleasure of it, even though cars will get you there faster.

I have a lot of friends who are artists, and I have been seeing a lot of them falling into despair about A.I. art. I don't want to be a pollyanna and pretend that none of the things they're concerned about will come to pass.

But the beautiful thing about humans is that we spend hours perfecting card tricks and sleight of hand. We do this even though there's certainly someone out there who will be better at it than us. We do it even though the vast majority of us will never be professional illusionists.

We write, and we paint, and we sing, and none of those things is a competition. The only race you're running is against yourself. We do these things because we are human, because we love to do them, and because we want to express ourselves.

I wish I could tell all my artist friends the things they need to hear to make them understand that this new world we're in isn't going to take their own art away from them. It's not an end for self-expression through art, and it doesn't make all the skills they spent years learning useless. It doesn't invalidate the time they spent sketching embarrassing doodles in a notebook instead of listening in class, or taking art as an elective a second time because their school didn't have any other art classes, or all the time they spent just trying to get hands or expressions or poses right.

I understand we're all living under the constraints of a capitalist society.

People need money to live, and if you have the means, I encourage everyone who's reading to commission their friends, become a patron of an artist you believe in, and consider filling your house with beautiful human-made art that has special meaning for you.

Until we have UBI, or luxury gay space communism, it will always be hard for artists, and I sympathize with that. I absolutely think everyone out there should be the change they want to see, and let this be an opportunity for human-made art to flourish. Commit to help your local art scene, go to an art gallery, and talk about human-made art with your friends. Don't just let your interest taper off in a few months, keep going back, keep buying and supporting it for years to come.

But I don't think it will be the worst outcome in the world if a teenager 100 years from now who is just finding their voice types a prompt into an ethically-sourced A.I. art generator, and gets a beautiful image that inspires them, that they craft their own meaning and mythology around, and which becomes a part of their life. Because that's human too.

[somethingusefulfromflorida]

It pains me to say this, but the trump judge Aileen Cannon is gonna be on the Supreme Court someday. This is her conservative litmus test, and she's passing with flying colors. She is ignoring the law because nobody can make her enforce it. She's giving trump everything he wants and she's not even pretending to be impartial, she's just up and saying "I work for him. Whatever he asks for, he gets." He asks for a special master, she gives him a special master. The special master tells him he has to back up his claims, he says he doesn't want to, she tells the special master he doesn't have to. I guarantee you that whenever the special master finishes looking over the stolen documents and concludes trump stole them, she'll ignore all his findings and insist the DOJ planted them and ask SCOTUS to step in because the 11th circuit already decided against trump. Cannon is letting Republicans know that she will actively and unapologetically abuse her power to protect the party, and because she's less than 50 that means her name is at the top of their shortlist for SCOTUS nominees, I can feel it in my bones. If Trump wins in 2024, she'll be on the bench in January 2025. The next justice to retire or die will probablt be Thomas, but he's already the furthest right, so Republicans don't have much to gain from replacing him (they'd only encourage him to retire to prevent Dems from replacing him; he doesn't want to pull a Ginsburg). What I think is more likely to happen is Republicans "encourage" John Roberts to retore, a la Anthony Kennedy in 2018, because of the 6 conservatives he's the closest to the center, a potential swingvote that needs to be gotten rid of and replaced with someone who will vote the party line no matter what. Cannon has proven herself as a Republican asset, and trump or desantis or cruz will reward her as soon as possible. I'm getting mad over a hypothetical, I'm literally starting an argument in my own head and losing, this is madness, but I know in my heart of hearts it's gonna happen. It may not be exactly as I predict, maybe Roberts will stay on and Sotomayor or Kagan or Jackson will have an "accident," or maybe Republicans will expand the court just to rub salt in the Democrats' wounds and do what they were unwilling to. I don't know the specifics, I just know that we are going to be hearing Cannon's name again very soon. I had never heard of Gorsuch or Kavanaugh or Barrett before they were nominated, but Cannon is gonna be a familiar face. The system is so broken there really is no hope for fixing it; we would need a complete reboot, new constitution, new offices, new checks and balances, term limits, age limits, impartial appointments, enforcable codes of ethics, but even that's a fantasy because Republicans would do everything in their power to make it partial and only enforce it against judges they don't like. How do we mvoe forward without all our attritional war? They will never stop, even if we break their spirits. The Confederates broke, but they played the long game and eventually won. The Nazis broke, but they played the long game and now currently winning all around the world. Republicans aren't even close to breaking, they're still on top, they hold all the cards, so how do we possibly move forward when half the population is deadset on dominating the other half in an absolute monarchy? They are a cancer that is destroying our civilization from within, but they don't care because they're winning! The cancer doesn't think of itself as cancer, it thinks of itself as stronger tissue taking resources away from weaker tissue. How do you excise it when it's already spread to every vital organ? It's more cancer than host at this point, and you'd think the whole thing would eventually collapse and die, but no, it's evolved into The Thing and is spreading itself to other hosts, copying, assimilating, replacing, contagious cancer that will consume the world before eventually turning on itself when no healthy tissue remains.

[moody-cowdaddy]

Rough

Tony Stark x Reader

Summary: You and Tony have been butting heads ever since you joined the Avengers, but things finally come to a head once the two of you are left alone at headquarters.

Category: Smut

A/N: I'm doing it, I'm finally taking the leap. I've wanted to write Marvel based imagines for a while, and after seeing Endgame, I am fucked up. I need to vent my sadness.

~

You had been with the Avengers for a little over a year. It was a decent gig. Fight bad guys, save the world, be loved by all. Well, loved by some, anyway. You got along with most of your colleagues aside from one: Tony Stark. Every new recruit went through some hazing from the self described genius, playboy, philanthropist, millionaire. But it seemed you were receiving your fair share, and then some from, 'The Man of Iron' as Thor always called him.

"You wanna be useful and make me some coffee?" Tony asked, finally emerging from his garage.

[[Keep reading]]

He looked haggard and frustrated. He was hard at work trying to crack the code for a new nano technology modification for his suit. The two of you were currently the only ones stationed at the Avengers headquarters while the rest of the team were either out doing there own thing or working on other assignments. It was rare that all of you ever worked as a team, unless something detrimental was happening.

It had been quiet for the past few weeks, and luckily, no outside or inside entities were threatening to blow up Earth at the moment. So, you had decided to take advantage of the free time and rest up.

You raised an eyebrow at comment as you sat down the book you were reading, "Uh, I'm on the team, y'know. I'm not your live-in maid."

"Hmm," he hummed at you sarcastically, "And who exactly are you again?

"Cut the shit, Tony. You've been riding my ass since I joined," you cut your eyes to him once more before shifting your body away from him.

"Yeah, and someone clearly needs to," he said bluntly.

You snapped your head back to him as he still stood firmly beside you, looking over you with stern gaze. All the disagreements and offhand comments that had accumulated over the past year, all the pent up aggravation seemed as if it was all coming to a head now. He seemed intent on having a fight, or atleast telling you how he really felt.

"Oh yeah," you sucked your teeth, "And what exactly is your point?"

"My point is that you're reckless," he furrowed his brow, throwing a hand up.

You scoffed, genuinely amused by what he was saying, "Wreckless? Of all people telling me that I'm wreckless. I've heard stories about you and your wreckless days, Mr. Stark."

He nodded his head, "Sure have. Sure have. Do you see me acting like that now? No, you don't." He pointed towards the floor, "This. All of this, is not a game."

You rolled your eyes quickly, finally standing up from the couch you were seated on as you took a step forward. You were face-to-face with him now, and it made the hair on the back of your neck stand on end.

"Maybe I'm not the most ethical Avenger, but I get shit done my way," you gritted your teeth, locking eyes with him.

"That's the mentality that gets people killed," He whispered gruffly.

"What are you, a boy scout?" your mouth stretched into a thin line.

"Nope. I'll leaving the boyscouting to the Cap'," he shook his head, his eyes unwavering from yours.

"You wanna settle it? Put on the suit, and we can go a couple of rounds. Otherwise, we're done here," you shrugged, waiting for his answer.

As much as the two of you seemed to dislike eachother, there was always an odd tension in the air whenever the two of you got into it like this. It was a tension of more than just differences in opinion, that way obvious. You had to admit that it was palpable and exciting whenever the two of you did go at it like this.

Tony wasn't a bad looking guy by any means, and you'd be first to admit it, he was was down right handsome if you were being honest, but you had never really taken that much notice of it, until now. It was as if this encounter had flipped a switch inside of you, it was one that you could definitely feel, and your body felt like there were livewires scattered all around it as the two of you stood toe-to-toe now, studying eachother.

It was clear neither of you were going to back down from this. You studied the way his deep chocolate brown eyes darted back and forth in their sockets as they roamed over your face and body. Your eyes did wandering of their own as you noticed how well his toned body filled out the plain black t-shirt he was wearing, how his muscles flexed and tensed up beneath his skin, and how thick the stubble on his bear was getting. You couldn't help but wonder what that would feel like against your skin.

A small smirk pulled at the corner of his lips, "You're pretty hot when you get angry, Ms. (Y/L/N). It's a shame about that attitude."

You let out a huff of a laugh as you gazed up at him. You turned, with the intention of walking away, but the two of you knew that there was no walking away from this one. You spun back around to him quickly, bringing your arm around with the intent of scaring him, to make him think you were about to clock him in the face.

You didn't actually want to hit him, but he caught your arm mid-air and pulled you towards him. Your body slammed up against his firm chest, his grip was tight on your arm as he brought his other hand to your throat. You could easily get out of his hold if you had wanted to, but something in you didn't want to move, you wanted to stay there, locked in his grasp as the two of your faces were mere inches apart at this point.

It came as a shock when his lips finally crashed into yours, but no part of you wanted to fight him off. Instead, you melted into the kiss, instinctively wrapping your arms around his shoulders, gripping his hair roughly with your hands as he brought his down to grab your waist, demanding you to follow as he jerked you around towards the couch.

A small moan escaped your lips as he bent slightly, grabbing the backs of your thighs as he literally swept you off of your feet, making you fall back onto the couch as he followed suit behind you. He forced your legs apart, nestling himself between them. The makeout session between the two of you had gotten a little rough as there were now teeth and tongue involved.

You wrapped your legs around his waist, letting your hands pull down from his broad shoulders so your fingers could explore his fit physique. Tony plunged his tongue into your mouth, making you dig your nails into his skin. He let out a slight growl before pulling away from you, stopping only briefly to look down at you with an animalistic gaze as his head dipped back down, his lips finding your neck. He brought his hands to your breasts, kneading them beneath the fabric of your shirt. You grunted, pulling at is t-shirt, you were desperate for him to get it off.

He obliged and lifted himself briefly to roll the fabric off of his torso before tossing it to the side. He wasted no more time in getting your clothes off you, you already had your shirt halfway over your head as he worked on ripping your pants down to your ankles. Neither of you seemed to be that interested in foreplay right now.

This was a year's worth of sexual frustration and pent up aggression that needed to get out, and neither of you had time for anything slow or drawn out.

He dropped his body back down to you, pressing his hands into the couch on either side of your head as he kissed you hard again. You moaned into his mouth, desperate to feel him inside of you even more than before now. You reached down, palming his already hard cock through his unbuckled jeans as he grinded himself into your hand. He used a free hand to rip your bra down, revealing your full breasts to him. He looked as if he was in awe over your body as he looked up at you, then back down to them. He ducked his head to one of them, flicking a tongue over one of your sensitive nipples before taking it into his mouth.

You gasped, tightening your legs around him again as you grinded yourself into his cock through his pants. You core was so soaked now that you were positive you'd leave wet marks on his jeans, but you didn't care.

"Tony," you panted, reaching between the two of you to give his cock a needy squeeze, "Please, fuck me. Please."

He seemed to respond well to hearing that because his head snapped back up to you, a cocky smirk tugging at his lips as he lifted himself up to unzip his jeans, not even bothering to take them off as he slide them down just enough to free his sizable cock before burying himself between your legs again.

You could feel the head of his length as it bumped against your swollen clit, making you yelp pleasurably as you longed for more of that sensation. Tony tangled your hair around his fingertips as he forced you to pull your head back, surrendering your neck to him. You felt every inch of his cock him as he pushed himself into you roughly, both of you letting out satisfied moan.

It was clear that this moment was something that both of you secretly had wanted since this whole thing began.

He snapped his hips against you roughly, making the both of you moan in unison again as he began to pick up the pace of his thrusts against you, each jerk of his hips plunged his cock deeper inside of you as it forced your walls to stretch to accommodate his size. You arched your back up into him as he dipped his head down, placing his lips over one of your nipples again.

You wrapped your arms around him, whimpering and crying out each time his cock delved into you. You dug your nails into his back, which only made him slam his hips into you harder. The sound of skin slapping against skin filled the room. Tony grunted against your skin, the vibration of his voice paired with the stubble of his face created a tantalizing sensation against your breast.

You could feel your orgasm coming on strongly as you felt your walls begin to tighten around his dick. It made his thrusting become erratic and less rhythmic as he struggled to hold himself back from the overwhelming sensation of your pussy gripping onto his cock.

He lifted his head as he closed his eyes tightly, "Jesus, (Y/N), keeping doing that and I'm gonna come."

"I don't care," you breathed roughly, placing your hands on his shoulders, "Don't stop, Tony. Please."

He nodded, grunting gruffly as the sweat began to bead up on his forehead. His dark hair that he usually had spiked up in his usual style was now damp with sweat and tousled messily. He looked hot like this, and it turned you on even more to know that you were the cause of his current state.

"Shit," he hissed, snapping his hips against yours. He tried to pull himself out of you, but your legs had him locked firmly into place, "I've gotta pull out."

You shook your head rapidly, "No. Come with me," you begged, grabbing a handful of his hair with your hands again before pressing your lips into his once more.

Climax began to wash over the both of you quickly. Tony wrapped a strong arm around you as he fought to use his other to keep his weight up as he lost himself completely, moaning your name as you could feel him spilling out deeply inside of you, that warmth of his release enveloping you. Your legs locked even harder around him as your back arched upward into his body, your orgasm crashing into you wave after wave.

When it finally subsided, Tony collapsed his body down onto you slowly. The sound of heavy panting was the only thing to be heard throughout the room as the two of you clung to eachother; two sweaty messes trying your best to regain oxygen.

Tony pulled his head up to you, a content smirk on his face, "For the record: I still think you're wreckless."

You scoffed, shaking your head at him with a smile, "I wouldn't expect anything less, Mr. Stark."

He sucked pursed his lips at you, "This doesn't mean I have to buy you flowers or anything now, does it, or, meet the in-laws, right?"

You rolled your eyes playfully, smiling, "Ha, of course not," you shrugged, "I mean, we still don't even have to like eachother."

"I mean, no, technically not, but I'm not opposed to meets up like this a few times a month, or you know, on recconaissance?" He suggested, only half joking.

"Now whose being wreckless?" You clocked an eyebrow at him coyly.

"See what I mean? You're a terrible influence turning me into a deviant," he smirked, pressing his lips to your once more before lifting himself off of you.

"I'll always be the back influence around here. But I'm site you didn't need help being a deviant," you bit your lip seductively.

Tony pulled his t-shirt back over his head before turning to you with a cocky smirk, "You're probably right.. Now, how about that coffee?"

You rolled your eyes amusingly, "In your dreams, Stark."

You had a sense that the two of you would be "butting heads" even more so now, but if this was to be the result of it, then you had no complaints about it.

[dailyaudiobible]

05/04/2021 DAB Transcript

Judges 19:1-20:48, John 3:22-4:3, Psalms 104:24-35, Proverbs 14:22-23

Today is the 4th day of May welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is a joy and a privilege to be here with you today as we continue to take steps forward, day by day and they keep leading us a day forward. And every time we do that then, a week passes and then a month. And here we are in this fifth month of the year on this fourth day of the month we find ourselves in the book of Judges all the way from the book of Genesis. So, we’ll just keep going and before we know it we’ll be reading the last paragraphs of the Bible and it’ll be like, “where did the year go?” So, let's continue our journey learning about the different judges of Israel, the people that rose up to lead the children of Israel after Joshua. And after that entire generation died out everyone did what was right in their own eyes. Israel didn't have a king or a supreme ruler and they were pretty meticulous about abandoning the Lord and doing some of the very, very critical things He asked them never to do. And we kind of see that coming out in the book of Judges. So, today we’re reading from the New International Version. Judges, chapters 19 and 20.

Commentary:

Okay. So, we have a little bit of a cliffhanger going on in the book of Judges and we have a story that is really difficult - profound injustice followed by very very costly injustice. I mean there are a few really really difficult stories in the Scriptures, and we've encountered a couple of them. This one…this one is up there at the top of the list of just being hard to imagine and, you know, trying to find some sort of spiritual undercurrent here that…that we could look at. That's not really in this story, though, is it? Kind of hard to find that redemptive thread and maybe that's the point. It's not there. And this is what happens when it's not there. So, we’re not done with this story. We’ll have to continue forward into tomorrow and maybe we’ll have some…some things talk about tomorrow. But let’s just look at the story in as much as we know of it and let's take note of something. The story begins not like, “once upon a time in a land far far away”, the story begins, “in those days Israel had no king.” And that is a phrase and a theme that we keep seeing in the book of Judges. The book of Judges kind of opens up with this idea that Israel has no king, and everybody is doing whatever they think is right in their own eyes almost like it's a little bit of a disclaimer. Like, “okay the things you are gonna read you need to understand that Israel didn't have a supreme ruler, and everybody was doing whatever they wanted. You need to know that as you go into this time period.” Judges makes it very clear to us if we’re paying attention. So, just like this story begins, “in those days Israel had no king.” And that's when we learn of the story. A man in the remote country of Ephraim had a concubine. So, she's like his common-law wife as we see later in the story, like when he goes back to get her, her husband treats him like a husband. This is just a different arrangement. We don’t have these kinds of…of arrangements typically in the cultures that we live in. So, we can back read our culture into this time and go, “how strange, how weird, how awful”, when what we need to do is just go, “this is a totally different point in history. People are valuing completely different things and they have different priorities.” So, this man, he has this woman. She's not named. She is unfaithful to him according to what we…we read…we read in the book of Judges and she goes and returns back to her father on Bethlehem. And, so, four months later he goes back essentially to see if the relationship can be repaired. The father welcomes him into the house. He stays there for several days. There all getting reacquainted. The…perhaps the relationship is being repaired because she ends up leaving with him and. And then we just begin to realize that the systematic choices in this story actually draw out the conclusion of the story. It's just so bizarre. If any one of these little, tiny decisions were different the whole story would be different. Like, what if he didn't go for months to get her? Then this is a total…this story never happens. And then what if he just gets her and leaves for home the next morning? Well then, this story never happens. But it’s the father-in-law that keeps like trying to delay the departure. And we can understand that. We don't…I mean…if our kids come to visit we don’t want them to leave. And, so, stay another day or whatever. So, we can kind of read into that or just look into that and go, “I kinda understand what's going on here little bit” or at least potentially what's going on. The father-in-law keeps trying to delay their departure. Finally, the man is determined he's gonna get away. Like, he's not waiting another minute. He's not staying another night. And, so, he ends up instead of leaving early in the morning leaving late in the afternoon. That choice right there, like if he left in the morning this is totally different story. So, they’re traveling north, they’re traveling north. I mean Bethlehem's like 6 miles south of Jebus, Jerusalem. So, they had traveled that 6 miles and it was getting dark and there were near the city of Jebus, which is Jerusalem and the servant’s like, “let's stay with the Jebusites.” And he's like, “no. We’re gonna stay only where there are Israelites.” And, so, they continue to move on a couple more miles until they…until they get to Gibeah, which is where this whole thing happens. They probably didn't stay in Jebus for fear of what actually happened in Gibeah. Again, these choices, they stack up to tell the story. So, they’re waiting to be taken in. They’re sitting in the city square looking for some hospitality. This is the custom. They get no hospitality until an older man from Ephraim comes in, welcomes them into his home. And then the…the men of the city surround the…surround the old man's house. They want the guy to come out. They want to have sex with the man, the visitor. And, so, the old man comes out and is like, essentially what he's trying to tell those men is, “these are my guests. They are under my roof. I have extended hospitality to them. They are under my protection. It's against the code, basically. It's kind of against our unspoken ethics here, that you don't do this kind of stuff. We have offer…offered hospitality and they’re safe here.” But then this…just the whole thing goes sideways when he's like, “look, take my virgin daughter, take this man's concubine. Do whatever you want to with them. Just leave this man alone.” This is when we brush up with the patriarchal nature of a very ancient time and it's… Look, this story bothers me. It doesn't bother me that it's in the Bible. It bothers me that there is such a thing as this story and you probably feel the same. So, what we’re not trying to do is figure out some way to whitewash and paint this thing into a good story. It's a horrible story. It's in the Bible because it's a horrible story. Nobody's gonna read this story. Nobody has been reading the story over the last several thousand years, “going that is in awesome story. Let's make a movie. I’m gonna write a children's book about this story and it should be told throughout the generations.” Nobody's doing that. It's not that kind of a story. This story is supposed to be an awful story. We’re supposed to read it like it's a bad story, like it’s a disruptive, disconcerting story. And we can see…like I'm not making that up, but just keep going…like…we’ll see how in just the second. So, that happens. The concubine gets thrown out the door. The men of the town rape her to death. She dies on the doorstep with her hand on the threshold. Don't think for a second that those details, all those details are not meant to make us that much more unsettled about a kind…this kind of a story. And the Ephraimite, he wakes up in the morning, which…man… He wakes up in the morning, he steps out the doorstep. He’s gonna go on his way. He finds concubine, apparently sleeping on the doorstep because she's had, I guess, apparently a long night. And he's like, “let's go. Let's go. Get up. Let's go.” But she's dead, so she doesn't answer, and he realizes that she's dead, so he puts her on his donkey and takes her back home to Ephraim. It's okay to look at this kinda look at this guy and go, “I have no respect. I…I don't respect how this went down.” That's okay. Nobody does. But he does set off something because he cuts her up into 12 pieces. And that's grisly and gory enough, but they don't have email and they don't have local or national news. They don't have Internet. They…they spread the word in very different ways than we do now. And in this case if you have a body part of someone along with a bit of a story that shows up to your tribal Council then your tribal leaders are probably going to get together with the others because they’re getting body parts to to try to figure out what this all means. And they do get together. They do come together, and they come together with outrage, which is how we begin to know that this is actually an outrageous story. The people, 400,000 armed men from the other tribes come together outraged. “How could something like this happen among us?” This is the question. “Nothing like this has ever happened among us before since we came out of Egypt.” This is what they're saying. So, this is an outrageous thing that has happened. And once the story is told in their hearing, they…the story binds them together as one with one voice. And that one voice is justice will be served upon those people in Gibeah. And, so, at that point we can go, “okay. I’m on board with that. Like, I see…I see that the people are shocked by what happened.” And, so, this wasn't like the normal way of things. The people are shocked enough to go to battle…to go to Civil War over it. And, so, they send messages to the tribes, the tribal leaders of Benjamin saying, “hand over the perpetrators” basically “hand over the evil people that were…perpetrated this kind of violence, this kind of outrage, this kind of sin among our people. It must be purged from among us.” The tribe of Benjamin, though, they just get their own army together. And, so, it is…and so it is…so it is Civil War. And we watched several battles. And we watched tens of thousands of people die in pursuit of justice. And we see one final battle that pulls the Benjamites out into the open and they are defeated, robustly defeated. What we don't quite understand yet, what we will begin to see as we conclude the story, but what we don't quite understand at this point in the story is that Benjamin is destroyed, an entire tribe. The youngest son of Moses, remember that…that younger son and Joseph sees his younger brother that he hasn't seen since he was a baby, and he weeps? Remember that whole story back in Egypt? These are his offspring, Benjamin’s children, the tribe of Benjamin. They are utterly destroyed. There are only you hundred people left in the entire tribe. So, an outrageous crime, like an outrageous tragedy, an obscenity committed within Israel and then the rebelliousness of those who will not turn over those who perpetrated the violence has led to the tens of thousands of people losing their lives and the annihilation of one of the tribes of Israel. And we can look at it and go, “there is no redemption in this story”, but there is actually. Taking the long view, there really is and we’ll see that. We’ll see that…we’ll see that as the story continues, but we’ll see that as we continue our journey into the era where there are kings in Israel because Israel's first king, his name will be Saul. Guess where he comes from? The smallest family in the smallest tribe. He's the insignificant person in his family who lives within an insignificant tribe known as Benjamin. So, we’ll allow the story play out while keeping in mind that at those…in those days Israel had no king, because that's we keep being told. It’s being told to us almost like a warning, like some of this territory is tough and we just happened to past through some of that tough territory. Because this is what happens when people in covenant with God abandon God and go their own way. And we can see, like all these little choices, they add up to stuff. I mean we could say, “well…dah…like you didn't have to make it about that story. Every little decision that we make adds up to stuff all the time.” Yeah, that's kind of the point. We’re telling the story of our lives with the choices that we make all the things we choose, all the motives of our heart, they’re leading somewhere. And, if anything, we can look into this story and go, “a couple different decisions change this whole story.” And, so, maybe we should slow down and be just a little more cautious about the decisions that we’re making because a couple different decisions can change anybody’s story.

Prayer:

Father we thank you for your word and we thank you for disruption. We thank you. It’s not like it was an enjoyable story to read but this is what happens. And we think you for leaving that in there, for leaving that for us. This is what happens when the covenant is broken, and everyone goes their own way and chases after all other gods and gives themselves in worship other things. This is where the trail goes. So we don’t like to read these stories, but this is where that path goes where awful things can happen. And, so, help us Holy Spirit to pay attention to the decisions that we make, especially the ones that can be consequential. And help us Holy Spirit to have wisdom's voice that is calling to us at every crossroads, help us to stop ignoring, help us to follow the path of wisdom because it's not like this sort of thing doesn't still happen on planet Earth. Human beings still stray incredibly far from you and lose all tethering to humanity and become animals and do this kind of stuff. It still happens. So come Holy Spirit let us be the wise ones. Let us see what's going on and learn the lessons that are bestowed upon us from the Scriptures. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it’s the website, it’s where you find out what's going on around here. Always something going on around here.

So, we are settling in with this new baby that's a part of our lives now, Reagan the brave, and seeing her with her eyes open and looking around and becoming aware and getting to know the voice of her mommy and her daddy and loving, loving, loving that. And yes, I think probably for the next several months I could give to daily update on Reagan. I won't. But it brings up something else that we have discovered to be quite exciting in our neck of the woods and that is that we have been informed that there will be another baby coming into our world yet this year. Our son Christian and his wife have announced that they are also expecting, and they will also be…be bringing up baby girl into our lives this September. So, the girls are making a comeback, they’re making a show here and I love it, I love it. And, so, we are certainly excited and overwhelmed with all of this is news and that's just…I mean…part of the of the world around the Global Campfire here. And, so, thank you for he hooker prayers over this next little one and her development and her safe delivery into this world come this autumn. We’re gonna have a couple of babies around Christmas time this year and that's…that's pretty exciting. So, thank you for your prayers over our family as we expand.

And, of course, we’re a community of prayer and so we pray for each other all the time every day and there are a number of ways to stay connected in prayer and fellowship. One would be…well…the Community section in the app or on the website. That gives links to different social media channels as well as that…well…that’s home base for the Prayer Wall. And, so, there's always prayer happening there.

And if you have a prayer request or encouragement that you want to call in then there are a number of numbers that can be used. But first of all, you can use the Hotline button in the app, the little red button at the top no matter where you are in the world, or if you want to use the phone, the…the number in the Americas is 877-942-4253. In the UK or Europe 44-20-3608-8078. And in Australia or that part of the world 61-3-8820-5459 is the number to call.

And that's it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Good evening Daily Audio Bible this is Faith from Mississippi. I just want to say congratulations to China and Ben on the birth of their little Princess Reagan. It's such a blessing. And I want to let Honeybee know that I am praying for her as well as well as everybody else. Have a blessed day. Again, this is Faith from Mississippi. Thank you to Brian and Jill for this podcast.

Hi, this call is for…brother you went by the name, I think it was Running Bear, it was like a trail name or something. I just…man that totally…your message there…I've done that to people who have lost people and I didn't even…didn't even realize that was what I was doing or why. So, thank you for calling. I'm gonna do my best not to do that. I'm praying for you guys. I love you guys. And yeah, thank you for calling man. I'll be praying for you guys.

Hi, it's Donna from California and it's April 29th and I've listened a few times now to a prayer request from, I think his name is Running Bear whose wife passed away about four years ago. He has teenage children and was describing something that really just should not be but sadly is, just an abandonment by the church because people, I don't know, are uncomfortable. People, as you very acutely noted, want to avoid any hint of suffering. People don't want to be reminded of something could happen like that to them. That is our American culture. And Running Bear I am…I just…I wanna say I am so sorry for that. That just shouldn't be. I…I…I repent of that in my own life of times that I’ve just withdrawn from somebody who…who had suffered a tragic loss. And I don't want that to be. That…that should not be who we are as Christians. And thank you so much for that reminder, that we need to step up, we need to do better as…as Jesus followers. We need to care about one…one and other much better than that. And please call in again. We love you and I…I bet lots of people are praying for you. I am too.

Good morning DAB family God bless you all. So, congratulations China, Ben, and Hardin family. Oh, my goodness Reagan Brave Brown you are in this world and the Lord's gonna do amazing things in your life. I pray that over you in the name of Jesus. Alright family, here we go. Tony the Narrator I am so sorry you have not been feeling well and this anxiety over you, but we bind those spirits in the name of Jesus. I bind those spirits of anxiety that are trying to take over you in the name of Jesus. Madison from Cali a newbie welcome sweetheart welcome. Your dear friend Tray, I am praying for sobriety. I have prayed alongside with you. I am praying that he will be able to find his Sabbath, you know, to take his release from work in the name of Jesus and to be free of alcoholism in the name of Jesus. David from Pennsylvania, yes, that revelation, Hallelujah. God's love never fails. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for sharing that in the name of Jesus. Tim congratulating us. Praise you Jesus, you know, for being a part of this family as you are, and we congratulate you for being here too. And happy birthday to your sweet little one who turned 2. Diane Olive Braun, shalom, shalom. Yes sweetheart, I thank you Jesus. Every day should be like today because there are new mercies and new grace every day, every morning. We are so blessed to be here with the Lord. We are so blessed to share His love. We are so blessed to share His word. We are so blessed to be a beacon of light to others. I love you family. I love you. I love you. __. Esther from…

Hello Daily Audio Bible friends and family. I just want to take this time to…just to pray and just to give God glory, just to remember who He is, what He's about and what He stands for. Too many times we forget just like the Israelites. When they got in trouble they called out to God. God rescued them and he went…they went back to their sinful ways serving other gods and then they get in trouble again, call God…call on God again to rescue them. One time He told them, “hey you get that other God that you serving to…to…to…to rescue you.” But they kept crying out. And we know the blessings and the greatness of our God. He always…He always comes through. So, let us never forget who God is and what He's about. Let us serve Him with all our heart. Let us not keep dabbling back and forth into sin and righteousness because it's not a good mix but instead let us hold on to His mighty hand and have Him help us to live a righteous life, a godly life, a godly life that is free from idolatry, a godly life that is free from serving other gods because we know the one and true God, the only God is our Lord and savior. So, let us not go back and forth but let us pray and ask God to help us to live in a way that honors Him every day, each day, all day long, and from here until the time that we…until the time that we enter in…

First and foremost, thank you God because a lot has happened in my life and you are really truly watching me, keeping me. This is Carla from East Texas and I’m…I called with a prayer request for my great niece who I still have guardianship over. We are taking a tiny vacation in Galveston right now and it's lovely here. We're just chilling and I’m listening to my…my Daily Audio Bible on a swing outside listening to these strange birds while the girls are running around, and my mom is here with us. And it's nice to get away. And I praise God that we were even able to do this because I've never done this in my life. But praise God that she is thriving in school things are still a little bit rough sometimes, but she loves it with us, and I tell her every day that we're so glad to have her. Family life is still a little rough. Just please keep praying for all of us including her dad, my nephew who's going through a lot and my daughter who's adjusting pretty good. But I just wanted to get on and at least update you. I love hearing this - the prayers and the praises. And I just feel like I'm a part of an awesome new big family. So, God bless, and I love you.

[snowdropsandtigers]

I'd love to see you talk about the Black Magician Trilogy! I don't have a specific date in mind, so feel free to slot it in wherever, but it's always exciting to find other fans!

I am so sorry thisis late. I planned for it to be up at the end of January and then gotbusy, and it had been so long since I’ve talked to another fan Ineeded to figure out where to start.  I knew it would be a longpost—I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to make it long out offeeling rusty, but I knew it would be if I really got into it. Sohere it is at last.

Before I get intothe books themselves, I want to spend two paragraphs on somethingthat defined my experience with the series: the Black Magiciantrilogy forums I joined as “LittleRaven” during the mid2000s. Idedicate this post to its members. Wherever you are now, I love you.

I love the BlackMagician trilogy* the way I love Harry Potter. The books still feellike home to me. Part of the reason is the fandom: while Harry Potterfandom does have that sense of familiarity and coziness as I rememberdays past, it was in the Black Magician trilogy fandom that I found acommunity. Specifically, in the Black Magician trilogy forums (June2006-October/November 2012) hosted on then-platform Forumer (Ithink.) This was the first time I was ever an active part of fandom.I’d left reviews on fics, sure. I’d joined Yahoo Groups andoccasionally commented. I’d even written/plotted one or two ficsfor my earliest fandoms, Pokemon and Sailor Moon, though I neverposted them. But in the forums, I meta’d. I squeed. I posted mypoetry. I shared and even modded one of the subforums for a fewyears. (I was The Librarian of the fanfic/original fiction section.) We even talked about social issues with the books and the fandomresponse, without it ever becoming a war. It was one of thefriendliest fandoms I’d ever known, and small, so everyone kneweach other. I joined the first summer—probably the first monthtoo—after nearly two years of barely finding any fanworks for oneof my favorite series in the world, and I was not disappointed. Therewere years I didn’t show up a lot, but I always came back. ThenForumer sold its forums to Yuku and Yuku closed it down. It said thatmembers had been sent an invitation, and that it would reopen theforums as soon as one of the administrators made contact. I don’tknow why—to save space? In that case, the forums must have beenwiped from the Internet years ago because both our administratorswere long gone. One of the moderators, another member who, like me,had been there since the beginning, tried to contact the admin who’dstuck around longest and had no luck. I only knew this because Iremembered a member’s FF.Net alias and made a desperate attempt tofind out what was going on. I still miss it. The place had sloweddown a lot, but was still active everyday, and occasionally an oldermember would peek back in. Even when it seemed like we had saideverything we could about the books, we could still chat about otherfiction and even a little about our lives. The series would cycleback into discussion regardless, especially when the prequel and thesequels began coming out. (I really regret that it happened before Icould finish the last book and talk about it.) I’ve never been socomfortable in a fandom before and I haven’t been since.

Traces remain, atleast. We had a website with fanart; Trudi Canavan even commented inthe guestbook once. It was up the lasttime I checked, though my bookmarks were lost in a crash and I’veforgotten the link’s URL. (I searched before posting and it’s frozen. :C ) I remember Sheepy-Pie creating character plushies and thatshe gave some to Canavan at an event. They were so adorable! Iremember Lady Laura and Kasloumor and j-mercuryuk, Ronan, Akkarin,Lorlyn, ShadowEmpress, Lady Vinara, andso many others; I’ve only mentioned the people who stick out forhaving been there the longest or in the periods I was most active.

Now, the seriesitself. At fourteen, I was hooked by the heroine and the classpolitics; I don’t think much of the fantasy I’d read before thendealt with the latter, and while a marginalized protagonist wasnothing strange, Sonea’s reserved personality for most of the booksand her alienation worked on a different level for me**. She was aworking class girl on the edge of poverty being displaced into theslums. The tension of the two different lives she was pulled tobefore she became a magician got me and really grounded hercharacter. Grounded is the right word, really. She had old friends inthe slums she still loved but was distant from, and it made sensewith her background and the world-building. She remains distrustfulof the magicians and the higher-class world they’re connected tothroughout the entire series. She’s never popular, though sometimesrespected. She was hated and harassed, and often isolated to apainful degree, but she had people who cared. This sounds a bitvague; let’s say the second book—The Novice, for anyreaders unfamiliar—is a bit like the fifth book of Harry Potter, ifHarry was more isolated from his loved ones and more conscious of whyhis environment is working the way it is.  If instead of having afriend group where it’s “us against the world” adventures, he’dhad friends in different places—literally or figuratively—whohelp when they can, complicated by the difficulties of plot andsetting and life choices. I love Sonea’s reactions throughout:practical, carefully responsive to genuine attempts to reach out,perceptive, intense empathetic, blunt, impulsive, and very strictabout her personal code of ethics. Also, she liked poetry and thenarrative didn’t use that to create a hazy image of her as wispyand romantic. I liked that detail!

And she could besoft without being soft—she would help someone, she would treatpeople with respect for their humanity, but it didn’t mean she hadto be forgiving and throw herself into them. Or that she had toforget. If she didn’t fight someone, or didn’t fight the wayothers might expect, it was well-grounded in her personality, and  nomatter what she always resisted in whatever way she could, regardlessof it being glamorous in even the fictional kind of way. She hadtenacity. Sonea is a prime example of Goodis Not Soft. She was sensible, tough, and kind. As I said,empathetic. The way the first two books moved the plot while buildingher character made the third book work very well for me as payoff. Itwas always my favorite: the nature of the plot twist and Sonea’sresponse to it made perfect sense for who she’d been until now, andthe love story is one of my favorite executions of my favorite kindof ship, the heroine/antagonist. In large part because this was herstory. It wasn’t his story, or their story as a couple—althoughhis characterization, and that of everyone else, was well-served andcared about—but hers.  The books cared so much about Sonea’sinteriority and never subordinated her to the needs of plot, theme,or another character. I could believe why she loved and respected him(again, for the unfamiliar reader: the romance is not at theforefront of the story at any point.) I could believe why she wouldmake the decisions she made, in and out of romance, based on what shethought of the world and what she thought of herself. She’s soinformed by everything that came before, so solid. And I love thatshe made them; Sonea drives so much of her own story, especially inthe first and third books. She’s so active in the last one! Evenwhen she’s not as in charge of her life, I love how the books, assaid above, care very much about exploring her point of view in everysituation. Having limited choices, limited agency, doesn’t everreduce her to a prop: she remains three-dimensional, our clearprotagonist.  Sonea is well-rooted in her background, in the plot,and in the class politics story the narrative is interested intelling.    

The sequels aren’tas much about her, but they do present a believable trajectory forher character. Sonea is older, still fighting the world around herbecause she must, and because she cares, and taking support where shecan as soon as she recognizes it. The way she handles her son isperfect. And while I don’t have a rosy opinion of her new loveinterest, I love that the romance didn’t come with a capital R!It’s just someone she grows to trust and care for and wants to havesex with. I came away with the distinct impression that he loved herand she just liked him all right, and that that was just fine by thenarrative. Positive even, a good ending that left her story in aplace of renewal and refreshment. The sequel trilogy does well byher.

Another thing ofnote: I hadn’t realized it on the first read-through, but betweensome cultural details, the physical descriptions of Sonea and otherKyralians, and the author saying on her website (in a FAQ or a blogpost) that she was influenced by anime and Japan for Kyralia, Soneais the first POC and WOC protagonist I ever encountered in fantasyfiction, outside of anime/manga and Disney Princesses. I’m glad shewas done so well. I won’t say I’m without reservations on raceand this series, though; but I’ve never felt qualified to talkabout it. I am a brown woman, but I’m unsure of exactly whatcontext to place the series in, so I don’t know how to talk aboutthe ways it interacts with that context. I’ll just say that beforethe sequel trilogy, it bothered me that the darker-skinned Sachakanswere associated with slavery and decadence. I did think the sequeland prequel improved on this very much.

Something else thesequels did better with was the queer stuff. I liked Dannyl andTayend in the first trilogy, but they get a whole lot moreexploration in the second. And Lilia is one of the few lesbianprotagonists I’ve found in fantasy fiction. I did have issues withthe twist in the Naki plotline, but I’m glad she got a goodgirlfriend in the end. And a mentor in Sonea! If I remember it right;I don’t think I’ve reread the books since The Traitor Queencame out, and I’m not sure I reread that one. I think I was toobummed by losing the forums at the same time, and not having a placeto immerse myself in anymore.  So I don’t know how much I can sayabout the execution. But I did think Canavan did a fine job with hercharacterization, and I’m glad she went for more representation,more queer characters and more queer relationships that get narrativeattention and depth.  

I’ve gone on solong and I didn’t even talk about the prequel! I focused the poston Sonea and the prequel is set centuries before her time.  Iremember thinking it was a very effective setup for the futureconflicts Canavan had developed and would continue to develop in thesequel trilogy; I love that she’s so committed to the ramificationsof her political world-building on the characters and the plot. Itfelt, as her other works have done, bittersweet and real.

 Overall, I thinkTrudi Canavan does an excellent job of following fantasy tropes tocreate something that sets itself apart from the rest. Her scope isepic and personal, grounded in the characters, who are grounded inthe world-building. Everything is so well-integrated, feels socohesive. This is one of the most, if not the most, loving and richexecutions of the “poor orphan child with mysteriously powerfulmagic” stories I have ever encountered.***

It’s been a longtime since my last reread—probably since 2012, when the last bookcame out. I feel the urge to go back. Thank you so much for this ask!I hadn’t talked about these books in literally years; I was myability to do that had gone stale, and here I am, being so happy totalk about why I loved them. This has been a wonderful time to write.I’m only sorry it took so long to get out!

*It’s been aseries for years now, but I keep defaulting to “trilogy” when Ithink about it. I’ve been a fan for a long time. I greatly enjoyedthe rest of the books, but the original trilogy does occupy a spaceas as the trilogy for more than half the time I spent infandom, if memory serves. (And now I’ve checked, I remember thatthe sequels are called The Traitor Spy trilogy. So there’s thattoo!)

**Now I realizeshe’s a precursor to Emma Swan. I love finding connections betweencharacters I love. Although every time I connect someone to Emma SwanI always add “if Once Upon a Time’s narrative cared about herlike these other narratives do with their heroines!” Every time.

***I also lovedAlison Croggon’s books (The Naming and sequels—I thinkit’s the Pellinor series) for this, and talked about it on the BMTforums. I wasn’t the only one who loved them! They do have a moremythic, Tolkien-like tone and story than the Black Magician books,which are more overtly human-scaled. I compare them because they’reboth careful and detailed about their stories, and their narrativesshow love for the heroines by exploring their interiority, from painto joy, with dedication and respect.

[pawelpiotrowski]

90% of programming jobs are in creating Line of Business software: Economics 101: the price for anything (including you) is a function of the supply of it and demand for it.

Software solves business problems.  Software often solves business problems despite being soul-crushingly boring and of minimal technical complexity. (..) It does not matter to the company that the reporting form is the world’s simplest CRUD app, it only matters that it either saves the company costs or generates additional revenue. There are companies which create software which actually gets used by customers, which describes almost everything that you probably think of when you think of software.  It is unlikely that you will work at one unless you work towards making this happen.  Even if you actually work at one, many of the programmers there do not work on customer-facing software, either.

Engineers are hired to create business value, not to program things:  Businesses do things for irrational and political reasons all the time (see below), but in the main they converge on doing things which increase revenue or reduce costs. Status (..) is awarded to people who successfully take credit for doing one of these things.

The person who has decided to bring on one more engineer is not doing it because they love having a geek around the room, they are doing it because adding the geek allows them to complete a project (or projects) which will add revenue or decrease costs.  Producing beautiful software is not a goal.  Solving complex technical problems is not a goal.  Writing bug-free code is not a goal.  Using sexy programming languages is not a goal.  Add revenue.  Reduce costs.  Those are your only goals.

Profit Centers are the part of an organization that bring in the bacon: partners at law firms, sales at enterprise software companies, “masters of the universe” on Wall Street, etc etc.  Cost Centers are, well, everybody else.  You really want to be attached to Profit Centers because it will bring you higher wages, more respect, and greater opportunities for everything of value to you.

Engineers in particular are usually very highly paid Cost Centers. This is what brings us wonderful ideas like outsourcing, which is “Let’s replace really expensive Cost Centers who do some magic which we kinda need but don’t really care about with less expensive Cost Centers in a lower wage country”. (..) Nobody ever outsources Profit Centers.

Don’t call yourself a programmer: “Programmer” sounds like “anomalously high-cost peon who types some mumbo-jumbo into some other mumbo-jumbo.”  If you call yourself a programmer, someone is already working on a way to get you fired.

You know Salesforce, widely perceived among engineers to be a Software as a Services company?  Their motto and sales point is “No Software”, which conveys to their actual customers “You know those programmers you have working on your internal systems?  If you used Salesforce, you could fire half of them and pocket part of the difference in your bonus.” (There’s nothing wrong with this, by the way.  You’re in the business of unemploying people.  If you think that is unfair, go back to school and study something that doesn’t matter.)

Instead, describe yourself by what you have accomplished for previously employers vis-a-vis increasing revenues or reducing costs.  If you have not had the opportunity to do this yet, describe things which suggest you have the ability to increase revenue or reduce costs, or ideas to do so.

Similarly, even though you might think Google sounds like a programmer-friendly company, there are programmers and then there’s the people who are closely tied to 1% improvements in AdWords click-through rates.

Do Java programmers make more money than .NET programmers?  Anyone describing themselves as either a Java programmer or .NET programmer has already lost, because a) they’re a programmer (you’re not, see above) and b) they’re making themselves non-hireable for most programming jobs.

Talented engineers are rare — vastly rarer than opportunities to use them — and it is a seller’s market for talent right now in almost every facet of the field.  Everybody at Matasano uses Ruby.  If you don’t, but are a good engineer, they’ll hire you anyway.  (A good engineer has a track record of — repeat after me — increasing revenue or decreasing costs.)  Much of Fog Creek uses the Microsoft Stack.  I can’t even spell ASP.NET and they’d still hire me.

There are companies with broken HR policies where lack of a buzzword means you won’t be selected.  You don’t want to work for them, but if you really do, you can add the relevant buzzword to your resume. (..)

Co-workers and bosses are not usually your friends: You will spend a lot of time with co-workers.  You may eventually become close friends with some of them (..) You should be a good person to everyone you meet — it is the moral thing to do, and as a sidenote will really help your networking

You radically overestimate the average skill of the competition because of the crowd you hang around with: Many people already successfully employed as senior engineers cannot actually implement FizzBuzz. Key takeaway: you probably are good enough to work at that company you think you’re not good enough for.

Networking: it isn’t just for TCP packets: Networking just means a) meeting people who at some point can do things for you (or vice versa) and b) making a favorable impression on them.

Strive to help people.  It is the right thing to do, and people are keenly aware of who have in the past given them or theirs favors.  If you ever can’t help someone but know someone who can, pass them to the appropriate person with a recommendation.  If you do this right, two people will be happy with you and favorably disposed to helping you out in the future.

Academia is not like the real world: Your GPA largely doesn’t matter (modulo one high profile exception: a multinational advertising firm). (..) it only determines whether your resume gets selected for job interviews.

Your major and minor don’t matter.  Most decisionmakers in industry couldn’t tell the difference between a major in Computer Science and a major in Mathematics if they tried.

In general, big companies pay more (money, benefits, etc) than startups.  Engineers with high perceived value make more than those with low perceived value.  Senior engineers make more than junior engineers.  People working in high-cost areas make more than people in low-cost areas.  People who are skilled in negotiation make more than those who are not.

We have strong cultural training to not ask about salary, ever. This is not universal.  In many cultures, professional contexts are a perfectly appropriate time to discuss money.  (If you were a middle class Japanese man, you could reasonably be expected to reveal your exact salary to a 2nd date, anyone from your soccer club, or the guy who makes your sushi.)

If I were a Marxist academic or a conspiracy theorist, I might think that this bit of middle class American culture was specifically engineered to be in the interests of employers and against the interests of employees.  Prior to a discussion of salary at any particular target employer, you should speak to someone who works there in a similar situation and ask about the salary range for the position.

Engineers are routinely offered a suite of benefits.  It is worth worrying, in the United States, about health insurance (traditionally, you get it and your employer foots most or all of the costs) and your retirement program, which is some variant of “we will match contributions to your 401k up to X% of salary.”  The value of that is easy to calculate: X% of salary.  (It is free money, so always max out your IRA up to the employer match.  Put it in index funds and forget about it for 40 years.)

How do I become better at negotiation?  This could be a post in itself.  Short version: a)  Remember you’re selling the solution to a business need (raise revenue or decrease costs) rather than programming skill or your beautiful face. b)  Negotiate aggressively with appropriate confidence, like the ethical professional you are.  It is what your counterparty is probably doing.  You’re aiming for a mutual beneficial offer, not for saying Yes every time they say something. c)  “What is your previous salary?” is employer-speak for “Please give me reasons to pay you less money.”  Answer appropriately. d)  Always have a counteroffer.  Be comfortable counteroffering around axes you care about other than money.  If they can’t go higher on salary then talk about vacation instead. e)  The only time to ever discuss salary is after you have reached agreement in principle that they will hire you if you can strike a mutually beneficial deal.  This is late in the process after they have invested a lot of time and money in you, specifically, not at the interview.  f)  Read a book.  Many have been written about negotiation.  I like Getting To Yes

Working at a startup, you tend to meet people doing startups. Most of them will not be able to hire you in two years. Working at a large corporation, you tend to meet other people in large corporations in your area.  Many of them either will be able to hire you or will have the ear of someone able to hire you in two years.

Working in a startup is a career path but, more than that, it is a lifestyle choice. This is similar to working in investment banking or academia. Those are three very different lifestyles.  Many people will attempt to sell you those lifestyles as being in your interests, for their own reasons.  If you genuinely would enjoy that lifestyle, go nuts.  If you only enjoy certain bits of it, remember that many things are available a la carte if you really want them.  For example, if you want to work on cutting-edge technology but also want to see your kids at 5:30 PM, you can work on cutting-edge technology at many, many, many megacorps.

Your most important professional skill is communication: Remember engineers are not hired to create programs and how they are hired to create business value? The dominant quality which gets you jobs is the ability to give people the perception that you will create value.  This is not necessarily coextensive with ability to create value.

Some of the best programmers I know are pathologically incapable of carrying on a conversation.  People disproportionately a) wouldn’t want to work with them or b) will underestimate their value-creation ability because they gain insight into that ability through conversation and the person just doesn’t implement that protocol

Conversely, people routinely assume that I am among the best programmers they know entirely because a) there exists observable evidence that I can program and b) I write and speak really, really well.

Communication is a skill. Practice it: you will get better. One key sub-skill is being able to quickly, concisely, and confidently explain how you create value to someone who is not an expert in your field and who does not have a priori reasons to love you.

All business decisions are ultimately made by one or a handful of multi-cellular organisms closely related to chimpanzees, not by rules or by algorithms: People are people.  Social grooming is a really important skill.  People will often back suggestions by friends because they are friends, even when other suggestions might actually be better.  People will often be favoritably disposed to people they have broken bread with.

Actual grooming is at least moderately important, too, because people are hilariously easy to hack by expedients such as dressing appropriately for the situation, maintaining a professional appearance, speaking in a confident tone of voice, etc.  Your business suit will probably cost about as much as a computer monitor.  You only need it once in a blue moon, but when you need it you’ll be really, really, really glad that you have it.

At the end of the day, your life happiness will not be dominated by your career. Either talk to older people or trust the social scientists who have: family, faith, hobbies, etc etc generally swamp career achievements and money in terms of things which actually produce happiness.  Optimize appropriately.  Your career is important, and right now it might seem like the most important thing in your life, but odds are that is not what you’ll believe forever.  Work to live, don’t live to work.