Little Things That Irk You VI: The Rage Awakens

[The Moleman]

I suppose it's part of the bigger picture of extremes we now live in. You're with us or against us, you liked it or you're toxic, you're a skinhead nazi trump supporter or you're a sjw cuck.

My gripe is that any criticism of the film is instantly shot down across all social medias, The Last Jedi is in a protected bubble where even laughing at how terrible it was makes you "toxic".

[Dogg Thang]

Nah, I think it’s more how you go about it. It’s saying “I didn’t like this thing” or “this part really didn’t work for me” or even just “I was bored” rather than claiming grievances, like the film has somehow wronged you. Or claiming your dislike of a movie is objective when objectivity is impossible in this scenario. Or blaming those who call out the toxicity of people who have gone as far as death threats (not funny) or a campaign to remake it (hilarious) as if that’s where the problem really lies. Largely, it’s just about language. Plenty of members here posted their dislike of the movie in the Star Wars thread without getting lumped in with the toxic fans and it’s largely just because they expressed their view in a personal way rather than trying to make it an attack or demonstrating a sense of inflated entitlement. No problem to dislike the movie at all. Many did. But if you’re finding yourself wrongly lumped in with the toxic fans, perhaps look at the choice of language.

[Asura]

Yeah, it's a bit like the recent Ghostbusters movie; you just can't discuss it online. If you say you weren't fond of it (I wasn't) it isn't just that people come out to say "what, you hate women that much?", you also get others who want to co-opt you like "here, another brother who stands for men's rights!". It's a mess.

If you get any more granular with your critique, you just piss off both. For instance, in the Ghostbusters case, I actually like the four actresses who were cast. Melissa McCarthy in particular was in SPY, a movie I found pretty funny. I just didn't like the script and didn't feel the movie was very well paced.You say that and both sides of the aisle vilify you (I've seen it with others).

[fishbowlhead]

I also agree with this. I’ve also seen people with money and luck blow it because, on some level, they want to. Took me many years to realise how big fear of success is and have also seen it in myself. Anyone can fail. Success is way more work and pressure. People need drive to succeed.

To sum up, there are lots of factors and lots of variables. Personally, I thinking working hard really helps but maybe not as much as being born rich and/or having a load of luck. Sustained success and definitely genuine success from nothing (which is a VERY rare thing) takes drive.

These days for a business to succeed you really need EVERYTHING to make it. Drive, good products, loyal customers, rediculous work ethic, forward thinking. Don’t forget a solid business plan for growth, then throw in a crap ton of luck for good measure.


You can tell apart someone who simply OWNS a business and someone’s who actually RUNS their business. One is loud and flash and usually dining on others money to keep everything afloat, the other is too busy actually running their business to be loud and flash.

[Dogg Thang]

As a (tiny) business owner, I can certainly agree with that.

[kryss]

The negativity in this thread irks me.

Ah! Self-irk!

[Blobcat]

HEAT WAVE SUCKS

[J0e Musashi]

I agree that working hard nets you a certain amount of wealth. When I was younger I worked every hour that god sent. I’d start four hours before my start time and finish three hours after my finishing time. Both Saturday and Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday if I could. Fortunately all of the extra hours were classed as overtime, so I was raking it in at the expense of my health. Though when you are young and you’re invincible, it doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things.

I also think that you have to be smart too, as that’s where the big money comes from. There is a cap on how much overtime you can do after all. I took all of that extra money and invested it into other things that would return even more money. Then I took that money and reinvested it into things that cost more, but would return even more money ad infinitum. I’ve been doing that for as far back as I can remember, and I now have my fingers in a many number of pies. Investing is an infinite chain for me. Sure, I’ve lost money on bad investments, but now that I’m older, I have better vision for this kind of stuff. Sometimes I’ll invest in something that seems dangerously risky, but it ends up working out for the better, and I get a healthy return from it. Other times, what seems like a sure-fire thing goes completely wrong. It’s a massive learning curve, which intrigues me and I never tire of.

Now that I'm older and more settled in life, I tend to not care as much as I did; mainly because I’m comfortable, and secondly that I care more about having a great time now. I have a beautiful woman and a great step-daughter who I get on fantastically with. Our time together is what I value the most nowadays.

I’m about to be made redundant after 20 years. I have zero transferable skills, but that doesn’t worry me in the slightest. I’m prepared. Some of my colleagues are very worried indeed and rightly so. They have young children, huge mortgages and their redundancy packages are not that great. On the other hand, mine is, but that’s just extra funds for me. I actually don’t know what I’m going to do for employment going forward, but I have a number of options. I could even be my own boss if I wanted to, and start a family business that could be handed down eventually. I’m actually quite excited about the whole thing if I’m honest. My tentative plan is to do a little travelling as it’s something that I never paid much mind to because I ploughed in the hours and hours behind my desk. I want to eat, drink and be merry with those closest to me and then I’ll decide on how I want to go forward.

Life is is a very strange thing, but there is always something to smile about I think. Sure, having money seems like it’s the way forward, but it actually isn’t. You can be a very rich man indeed just from having great people around you. I consider the vast majority of you here to be great people. Hell, we speak to each other almost daily as though we are brothers in arms.

If any of you have a job going that requires an EXTREMELY good command of the Queen’s, as well as high-level NDA’s, I’m your man.

Have a good day my friends, it’ll be Monday morning before you know it.

[J0e Musashi]

As a (tiny) business owner, I can certainly agree with that.

How can you go from a tiny business owner into a small business owner? Provided that what you want of course, but from tiny grows large.

[randombs]

It’s Monday morning for me already!

12:35am.

We moved five months ago and still have a bunch of boxes, so I’ve been packing away bedding and futons and general tidying nonsense like that while my wife eyes up brochures for our next holiday which I’ve now lost all motivation for. That’ll be a fun argument.

[Dogg Thang]

How can you go from a tiny business owner into a small business owner? Provided that what you want of course, but from tiny grows large.

This is a good question and one I asked when we were just starting up four years ago. And the answer is mostly to take on work that I wouldn't enjoy doing. The work is there and it would scale the business pretty quickly and make me more money but probably make me much less happy. Whereas if we can survive small and keep overheads low, we can make a living for us and a small crew making really cool stuff that has us actively wanting to go into work each day. So right now, that's more the aim than scale.

I realise for some that might seem weird but I've seen some people in the same business grow huge, make a large amount of money selling off later and yet spending many, many years not actually doing what they want to do. I'll look on with envy when I'm struggling in my retirement years and I already have more worry about paying bills than they do but I think I'm going to end up with more better years in the end.

Edit: just to explain, I'm in kids' media. And there are really two ways of doing things: you create content or you produce content. And really you get to focus on one. If you go the former, you'll produce your own content when you get it off the ground but that in itself is a slow, uncertain gamble of a process and you'll just do one at a time (so low fees). If you go for the latter, you take on lots of third party production work, multiplying those fees. But you're basically a factory owner at that point, which totally suits some people and can be very lucrative. So I'm taking what I feel is the smaller, harder, happier, poorer route. The one sliver of hope is that you eventually hit upon the rare thing that takes off and then pays bills for years to come.

[J0e Musashi]

It’s Monday morning for me already!

12:35am.

We moved five months ago and still have a bunch of boxes, so I’ve been packing away bedding and futons and general tidying nonsense like that while my wife eyes up brochures for our next holiday which I’ve now lost all motivation for. That’ll be a fun argument.

”Man up” is what I wanted to say to that, but you seem stressed by your current scenario. My advice is to not argue with your good woman. She probably really appreciates your manly skills of packing things away, whilst at the same time wants to show you about your next endeavour together.

In the past ten years I have moved more times than a circus. It’s stressful, very very stressful. Maybe take a break, grab yourself a nice cold beer and talk about said holiday. After all, it’s been five months. A few more days won’t cause any harm.

[J0e Musashi]

This is a good question and one I asked when we were just starting up four years ago. And the answer is mostly to take on work that I wouldn't enjoy doing. The work is there and it would scale the business pretty quickly and make me more money but probably make me much less happy. Whereas if we can survive small and keep overheads low, we can make a living for us and a small crew making really cool stuff that has us actively wanting to go into work each day. So right now, that's more the aim than scale.

I realise for some that might seem weird but I've seen some people in the same business grow huge, make a large amount of money selling off later and yet spending many, many years not actually doing what they want to do. I'll look on with envy when I'm struggling in my retirement years and I already have more worry about paying bills than they do but I think I'm going to end up with more better years in the end.

Edit: just to explain, I'm in kids' media. And there are really two ways of doing things: you create content or you produce content. And really you get to focus on one. If you go the former, you'll produce your own content when you get it off the ground but that in itself is a slow, uncertain gamble of a process and you'll just do one at a time (so low fees). If you go for the latter, you take on lots of third party production work, multiplying those fees. But you're basically a factory owner at that point, which totally suits some people and can be very lucrative. So I'm taking what I feel is the smaller, harder, happier, poorer route. The one sliver of hope is that you eventually hit upon the rare thing that takes off and then pays bills for years to come.

I admire your words indeed Mr. You are taking the low road over the high road. That’s admirable enough for me, because you will be happier that way. However, is there not a “Middle road” that you could persue? Push yourself a little harder and sell out a little more at the same time is what I mean. Slightly more income traded off against slightly more woe. Don’t write it off because that one sliver of hope that makes you the next Walt Disney may lay right there. Something to think about at least...

[Dogg Thang]

I admire your words indeed Mr. You are taking the low road over the high road. That’s admirable enough for me, because you will be happier that way. However, is there not a “Middle road” that you could persue? Push yourself a little harder and sell out a little more at the same time is what I mean. Slightly more income traded off against slightly more woe. Don’t write it off because that one sliver of hope that makes you the next Walt Disney may lay right there. Something to think about at least...

Possibly and, yes, definitely worth thinking about. We’re always reevaluating where we are and whether the direction is working and, yeah, if there was a way of making the middle road work and getting a bit of both, that would be attractive.

[J0e Musashi]

Possibly and, yes, definitely worth thinking about. We’re always reevaluating where we are and whether the direction is working and, yeah, if there was a way of making the middle road work and getting a bit of both, that would be attractive.

I only say that because you have stated that your business is four-years-old. I gather that you are happy, and your team is happy too. BUT, and this is a big but. After four years, you are likely well-versed in what you do. Your team is likely highly experienced. Perhaps a slightly greater challenge could shake you and your gang up? It could bring much excitement. Slightly greater deadlines for your team and slightly greater pressure on yourself as the last boss may prove to be a good thing. If there is one thing I do know, it’s about staff morale. Sure, your guys may be perfectly happy in what they are doing right now, but could that extra pressure make them shine a little more? Give them some added hunger? Give you some added hunger?

Just something to think about, that may serve you well going forward.