Solid James Acaster quote there.

I agree but the world is so expensive now that you need a certain amount of wealth just to get by.

I’m saying, at the end of the day, make your own mind up about things. Don’t blindly follow anyone’s advice. People are constantly trying to tell you which way is up and 80% of the time it’s matrix style horseshit.

ADHD is falling down a rabbit hole trying to find an answer to this question and realising that there IS actually a definitive answer, which turns out to be that it’s a “half empty glass” if the last thing that happened to it was that liquid was removed, but it’s a “half full glass” if the last thing that happened to it was that liquid was added, BUT you also have to factor in evaporation which is happening constantly, so really every glass that contains an amount of liquid that corresponds to half of it’s containment ability is actually “half empty” except for the few seconds after water was added to it, in which case it is, briefly, half full, then describing your findings in a single, insanely long sentence.

You’re too easily triggered.

Man, it took me a long time of trying lots of different things until I found the thing that worked for me. I guess looking at it now, the turning point was when I understood what makes me tick finally. So in answer to the question about what starting your own business looks like, it depends on what vibes with you the most. You want to try and have an equal balance of doing what you’re good at, what the world needs, what you love and what you can get paid for. The rest is paperwork.

I don’t know how it works in your part of the world but here in the UK you can just decide that you’re a “sole trader” to begin with. You don’t need to make a company and you only need book-keeping rather than corporate accounting which is cheaper and simpler. I guess a good first move might be to go visit a business networking group. I’d avoid BNI if I were you and go check out one of the many groups created by people who escaped BNI groups (not kidding). They’ll give you a TON of free advice and you’ll start building some good relationships. Don’t try to grow in a vacuum by going solo. You’ll likely get lonely, sad and overwhelmed.

I meant that thing earlier about not believing anyone. There are so many people with “in your face” grindset mindset BS advice who’ll try to sell you on the idea that you’ve got everything wrong and you need to do it their way. Ignore them. They’re either trying to make a buck out of you or desperate for validation.

Also don’t create unnecessary hassles for yourself. There are loads of things you don’t need when you start off, but it’ll be tempting to want to put money down because it will feel like you’re “taking control”. Only invest in stuff you’ll need immediately to make stuff work for you.

As for the type of business itself it doesn’t have to be super qualified at anything. A lot of businesses amount to doing stuff for people that they just don’t want to do themselves because it’s scary or a hassle. You don’t have to invent anything. Just find a metaphorical bucket someone is tired of trying to carry and get good at carrying it for them. That’s basically all it is. I’ll do X so you don’t have to and I’ll do it better cos it’s all I do.

Last and most important bit of advice that literally took me 30 years to figure out. Make every service you provide a monthly subscription. One off jobs SUCK cos, Like Sisyphus, you’re going to have to keep rolling that boulder up the damn hill, over and over, finding endless new clients. You’ll also have to chase payments over and over which isn’t good for your blood pressure.

Make everything a monthly subscription to 25-50 people you’ve nurtured good relationships with. If you set it up right you’ll get paid before you do the job, never have to chase slow payers and easily pay your bills and put food on the table without a boss above you, grinding you down.

Do that for a couple of years and that will teach you what you need to know for the next step.

Hope that helps.

Being on LinkedIn and running a successful business are two very different things in my experience.

You’ll never get rich digging another man’s ditch.

The job application system is a con to grind the hopes of fresh meat into dust. Much easier to control someone who’s been told they’re utterly insignificant.

My advice is:

Find the boat Truman (it might not look like a boat in your particular iteration). Sail it (or drive, fly, gallop, swim) until you hit the edge of their simulation. climb up the steps, open the little door and go and make your own reality.

Erm… (cough)

Start a business… I’m saying start your own business is what I’m saying.

Don’t over-complicate it. Just start.

You’re welcome.

Oh and also don’t believe anyone, about anything. Everyone’s got an angle.

Good luck 🙂

If you look closely you can see the sweat.

Laughs in Elizabeth Tower.

Confidently incorrect again I’m afraid. My death is much more likely to be from a heart attack, because I just couldn’t say no to snacks. The rest of you are going to be just fine.

Also, here’s a wild theory… What if it’s AI that STOPS us from killing ourselves?

As a species, we do seem to be barreling towards that anyway, with what we’re doing to the climate and to each other economically and martially. What if the very thing you fear so much is the thing that saves everyone?

Anyway… time for another snack methinks.

Nice one liner 😉 but that’s not what’s happening here. AI has absolutely improved my life and the lives of so many people I know. It would literally take too long to describe all ways that “progress” has definitely happened thanks to AI for me.

Did you used to be able to have a conversation with a machine before? No. Can you now? Yes. So… Progress.

You’re really determined not to make this a light, fun conversation aren’t you… I’ll be honest with you, I get how you feel but don’t worry. Yes, people are fascinated by it cos it’s new, but they will soon get tired of it, if it doesn’t do anything significantly different soon. You won’t have long to wait before it doesn’t feel like AI artwork is being forced into everything, because once the novelty’s gone it’ll just fade away. It’s just a tool at the end of the day. Everyone will get over it and move on.

But it is shoved into everything. My friends are constantly telling me to try it. There’s even a blue cheese spread you can get and it’s… grey… 🤢

We’re probably all looking at AI “art” constantly without realising it. It’s blended into everything now because the economics of it are so appealing to anyone with overheads and profit margins. There’s no point fighting it.

It’s like blue cheese. Just cos I hate the stuff, I’m not gonna try and stop people making or consuming it. Although… ew… I mean why?? It’s mold inside curdled milk! But to each their own I guess.

I don’t think there’s a group more doomed to fail than people who try to convince others to hate AI art. It just keeps getting better because that’s the nature of progress but their arguments stay the same. Where do we think that’s obviously, without a doubt, removed please, going to end up?

They’re probably not doing that so he avoids jail. They may well be doing that because he might be going to jail.

Really fun demo. Do yourself a favour and ignore Hond’s review. I have no idea what they’re talking about or why they’re so filled with hate.

I’ll go negatives first - It definitely needs optimising, but I was getting a pretty smooth 55 fps on my 4060 RTX on medium settings with DLSS set to “Balanced” on my Ultrawide at 2560 x 1080. Also, why is it having to precompile shaders every time I launch it? I found at least one hilarious bug where a mountain bike would suddenly appear glued to the front of the bus sideways when I pulled into a bus stop. And that’s it… pretty much.

The rest of the game is really fun. I’ve been looking for a decent Bus driving game (not so much sim) for AGES. Also, going into this I had no love for Sabre Interactive. They absolutely ruined Dakar Desert Rally. What a horrible mess that game turned out to be! I have to admit though… they’ve redeemed themselves a little with this demo. At least I think so.

So, the good things that come to mind are…

It worked immediately with my T-248 wheel. No messing about with confusing settings like in THE BUS. It just worked and it was really easy to adjust all the settings.

I love how you have fixed side mirrors but you get a temporary mirror that appears only when you indicate and only on the side you indicate. It works really well and doesn’t clutter up the UI when it’s not needed. ETS2, for example does offer UI mirrors but they’re either on or off and not cleverly tied to the indicator like in this game.

The people in the town look good and walk around naturally. At least a LOT more naturally than the pedestrians in BUS SIMULATOR 21. There’s also a decent amount of people and a nice variety of cars as well.

I love the town itself. It feels like a city that’s buzzing with activity and looks really nice. The lighting is great and the sunshine and rain effects feel perfect to me. Compared to the weird plastic town feel of BUS SIMULATOR 21 this is a breath of fresh air. I wanted to love BS21 so much but I just couldn’t play it because the environment was so jarringly fake feeling.

I also really liked the game loop. How you unlock extras routes and buses by getting “likes” from your passengers for each bus stop by following all the good driving rules. It made me want to keep driving the routes till I’d filled up each bus stop’s “Like” meter and got that all important star. I also really like not having to fiddle about with change and tickets for passengers because bus travel is free in this game. I really didn’t enjoy BS21 where you have to get up and go check each passenger for tickets and figure out if anyone’s trying to ride the bus for free. I just wanna drive man!

I’m really excited to see how they improve this game and for an early access demo this seriously impressed me. It feels like there might FINALLY be a good bus game on the horizon 😁

Wouldn’t that get into all the circuitry of my hard drive? Also, kudos to Microsoft for figuring out how to “literally” build an operating system out of poop. That’s amazing…